pregnancy

The bizarre way you can get pregnant... while you're already pregnant. Yes, really.

So, here’s a thing you probably didn’t know.

Pregnancy isn’t actually the most foolproof kind of contraception. Sure, if you’ve got a baby kicking in your stomach it’s a pretty safe bet another one won’t start cooking while it grows, but it’s not actually an impossible feat.

The New York Times busted the common misconception around pregnancy and, well, pregnancy, drawing our attention a magical little concept called “superfetation”.

Basically, they write, it is possible for a second fertilisation to occur when one pregnancy is already progressing. While it’s not super common in humans, and more commonly seen in mammals, it’s still a thing. And it’s a thing that’s possible.

The Times cite a French report from 2008 which claims they had found fewer than 10 such reports up to that time.

A couple from the US are thought to be of just a handful of people worldwide who have actually experienced superfetation, in 2009 giving birth to two healthy non-twin babies more than two weeks apart.

Image: iStock.
ADVERTISEMENT

After struggling with infertility for three years, Julia Grovenburg and her husband Todd were considering adoption, when, in July 2009, she unexpectedly fell pregnant.

However, because the duo had been trying so hard to conceive, she fell pregnant twice in the space of two weeks and bringing the two babies into the world via c-section weeks apart.

So, you know, there's that. A fairly sound argument for being safe all year round.