Parasitic twin : a baby is born with a fetus in the stomach

Health 5 August, 2017


Bridget Coila/Flickr

Published the 05.08.2017 at 10h42



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At the time of the ultrasound with each pregnancy or so, it became very rare to have the surprise of discovering two babies instead of one at the time of delivery. Except when one of the twins is hiding inside his brother ! If this seems implausible said so, and yet it is what have found physicians Mumbra (India).

The Independent: Baby born ‘pregnant’ with half-formed twin brother behind his stomach. https://t.co/50ChF9dxIq

— Uncle Rasta {Emcee} (@ceeganja) August 2, 2017

Fetus in fœtu

This anomaly of development, known under the name of foetus in the fœtu or parasitic twin, is very rare : it would happen on average once every 500 000 births. And only 200 cases have been reported in the scientific literature.

In 2015, Marc Gozlan did state on his blog, a publication about a little Chinese. She also had been operated on a few days after his birth, and this is not one, but two fetuses that doctors had removed from his abdomen. The analysis of the bodies recovered indicated that the development of these twins had to stop at the tenth week of pregnancy. More recently, a small Ivorian was made in Chicago (United States) : she was born with the legs of his “twin” in the neck !