A woman has shared her remarkable story of becoming pregnant while already carrying a child, demonstrating that it is possible to conceive again while several months along, resulting in two separate pregnancies. This phenomenon is known as superfetation.
In 2020, 39-year-old Rebecca Roberts and her partner Rhys Weaver, 43, were viewing the ultrasound of their baby boy, Noah, conceived 12 weeks earlier, when they discovered he had a sibling on the way. While pregnant with Noah, Rebecca had also conceived their daughter, Rosalie, with the two babies being conceived about three weeks apart.
Rebecca expressed her gratitude, saying, “We feel really lucky. It’s already a blessing to have twins, but to have such unique twins is truly wonderful.”
Doctors informed Rebecca that her case was likely due to superfetation, leaving her amazed by the uniqueness of her pregnancy. “I didn’t even know that was possible. Even my midwife found it baffling,” she recalled.
Although there is a risk that the second baby may not survive during pregnancy, Rebecca successfully gave birth to Noah, who weighed 4 lbs 10 oz, and Rosalie, who weighed 2 lbs 7 oz, on September 17, 2020, at Royal United Hospital in Bath.
Due to her small size, Rosalie was transferred to the larger St Michael’s Hospital in Bristol, where she spent 95 days to gain strength. Meanwhile, Noah remained in Bath but required three weeks of hospital treatment before returning home to meet his 14-year-old sister, Summer.
Rebecca is not the only recent case to garner attention for experiencing a pregnancy while already pregnant. Dr. Misra-Sharp explained that medically, this situation is considered an anomaly. She emphasized the difference between superfetation and more common conditions like twinning, which can often be confused with it.
“The key difference is that superfetation involves eggs that are released and fertilized at different times, sometimes weeks apart, while twins arise from eggs fertilized simultaneously,” the doctor stated.
Superfetation can typically be detected through perinatal ultrasounds, and as the pregnancy progresses, scans may reveal that the two fetuses are at different developmental stages. “One will be visibly smaller or younger than the other, often by a few weeks,” she noted. In cases of twinning, any size differences generally reflect growth issues rather than different gestational ages.
