Some women can get pregnant even though they are already pregnant (there are 10 cases in the world)

It may even sound like a supernatural phenomenon, but some women can get pregnant even though they are already pregnant. The phenomenon is technically known as superfetation.

O awesome.club interested in the subject and, below, explains better what happens and why it happens. Stay with us and discover more.

As we already mentioned, this rare condition is called “superfetation”. It means the conception of a second fetus while the woman is already pregnant. As a result, the mother-to-be will have twins with different gestational ages and, depending on the case, even with two different birth dates.

Superfetation is not the same as superfertilization, which involves the fertilization of two eggs released during a single menstrual cycle from two separate sexual encounters. In this second case, a woman will end up giving birth to fraternal or bicyclic twins.

In the case of overfertilization, the woman conceives during different menstrual cycles and, in addition to gestational age, the twins will have different weight, height, and even blood types.

Normally, when a woman is pregnant, her ovaries stop releasing eggs into the uterus as hormones send a signal to the body to “prepare” for a growing baby. However, when superfetation occurs, the ovaries generate and release another egg that can also be fertilized.

There are 10 known official cases of this phenomenon. The last one happened in Australia, where Kate Hill got pregnant twice in a period of 10 days. She gave birth to two girls, Charlotte and Olivia, who were classified as twins. However, the time difference between the conception of the two fetuses was 10 days. Despite being born on the same day, the girls’ weights and blood types were different.

Superfetation can also occur in animals. Rats, kangaroos, rabbits, cats, sheep and fish are subject to this phenomenon.

The Greek philosopher Aristotle was the one who first noticed the occurrence of this type of situation in rabbits. He observed in the litter that some pups were of different sizes, with some being significantly smaller. This was because of superfetation — the younger pups were smaller precisely because of the second pregnancy.

Have you heard about this phenomenon before? What would be your reaction if you found out that you got pregnant for the second time while you were already pregnant? Share your answer in the comments!