Doctors report the astonishing case of an ectopic pregnancy where the fetus was implanted in the abdomen of its mother for 32 weeks. The baby was born healthy.
A 22-year-old woman has given birth to a healthy baby girl after 32 weeks of pregnancy. So far, nothing abnormal, but if this childbirth was the subject of a scientific publication in BioMed Central last February it is because this child did not develop like the others, in his mother’s womb, but in his abdominal cavity. This amazing case of ectopic pregnancy in the abdomen, undiagnosed until the baby was born, took place in Tanzania. It is estimated that abdominal pregnancy is a very rare case, occurring in only one in 10,000 pregnancies.
A fetus without an amniotic sac in its mother’s abdomen
Although she knew she was pregnant and had previously had two antenatal medical visits, it is because this young 22-year-old patient suddenly suffers from severe abdominal pain and her baby does not move much that she decides to go to the hospital. Until then her doctors had not diagnosed anything abnormal, except that she suffered from anemia and a urinary tract infection. It is therefore only after the establishment of iron supplementation, a prescription of paracetamol and two days of hospitalization, that the medical team finally realized by ultrasound, that the fetus was beautiful. and quite viable, but floated in its mother’s abdominal cavity, with no sac and amniotic fluid to protect it. This examination further revealed that the patient had a normal uterus, although empty, and normal ovaries and tubes as well. Finally, the placenta had developed on the anterior surface of the uterus and the young woman suffered from an effusion of a liter of blood in the peritoneum. The doctors therefore decided to proceed with the urgent extraction of the fetus by cesarean section. As a result, a baby girl weighing 1.7 kg was born and in good health. Three days after birth, the mother was moving, eating and drinking normally and breastfeeding was already successfully established.
A rare but high risk pregnancy
A week after her extraordinary delivery, the young mother and her child were released from the hospital. However, these doctors warned her about the risk of recurrence of this type of ectopic pregnancy. The problem is that in 50% of cases, in the absence of clinical suspicion, ultrasound misses this type of high-risk pregnancy for mother and child. Babies born after an abdominal pregnancy especially have a high rate of deformities because they can be compressed due to the lack of the protection usually provided by amniotic fluid. In addition, in the mother, the main risk is hemorrhagic.
Symptoms that should alert
Finally, the doctors who published this clinical case specify that there are several risk factors favoring this type of ectopic pregnancies: a history of tubal pregnancies, pelvic inflammatory disease, sterilization or tubal sterility and finally during pregnancy in the presence of an intrauterine device. They conclude that although these cases are difficult to diagnose, there are several symptoms that suggest the presence of an abdominal pregnancy, such as recurrent abdominal pain, painful fetal movements or when it is easy to palpate different parts of the fetus through. the abdomen.
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