After struggling with infertility for a year, Rebecca Roberts and her partner were elated after getting a positive result with an at-home pregnancy test. However, soon they confronted a complication related to their pregnancy at their first ultrasound appointment. During their baby's sonogram screening along with a steady heartbeat, they found out they were having twins. Rebecca Roberts, 39, conceived her twins. The woman became pregnant with her daughter Rosalie and son Noh over a period of three weeks. And this was a rare case of getting pregnant while already pregnant. The condition is called 'Superfetation'. What Is Ectopic Pregnancy? Causes, Diagnosis, Symptoms and Treatment Options for This Pregnancy Complication. 

Speaking to The Washington Post, Roberts stated that she was not aware that it was possible to conceive again once pregnant. It is said that in September last year, the twins were born prematurely through a caesarean at 33 weeks. The weight of non-identical twins varied after birth. The child was finally sent home around Christmas from the hospital two and a half months after her brother was discharged. Roberts’s pregnancy is one of the very few superfetation cases recorded in medical literature, her obstetrician, David Walker, said to The Washington Post. "It just doesn’t happen," Walker said, adding that it took several scans before he could confidently diagnose the condition. "We were concerned because the second twin was much smaller. It was only by regularly scanning and seeing that the rate of growth was consistently three weeks behind that we realized it was superfetation," he explained.

Watch Video of the Twins Shared by Rebecca Roberts on Instagram:

What is Superfetation?

The phenomenon of superfetation occurs when the already fertilized egg is inserted into the mother's uterus and during this time the pregnant woman's egg is fertilized again by a sperm. However, this kind of phenomenon should not happen biologically. Pregnancy hormones usually completely shut down a woman's system, which completely reduces her chances of ovulating during pregnancy. And that is why superfitness is considered a unique and unique phenomenon. The true number of superfetation cases is not known, but according to a report published in 2008 in the European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, fewer than 10 instances of the phenomenon worldwide had been recorded at the time.

A rare event in which an egg is released and fertilized when it is already pregnant. According to the report, it affects 0.3 percent of women in the world. But in most cases, the second child dies during pregnancy. The incidence of Superfetation is incredibly rare as only a dozen such cases have been reported worldwide. According to the Daily Mail, the mother was shocked to learn that she had twins because the first two scans showed no signs of the second fetus.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 09, 2021 02:26 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).