Can Women Become Pregnant While Pregnant? Science Says Yes: 10 Cases Have Been Documented Across the World

As unbelievable as it might be, a woman can become pregnant while already being pregnant. It sounds like a supernatural phenomenon from a sci-fi movie, but it’s true — a woman can conceive again after already being pregnant.

Bright Side became interested in this topic and studied it carefully to eventually present you with the final results.

This rare condition is called “superfetation,” which implies the conception of a second fetus while being pregnant with another one. As a result, a happy mother gets 2 twins with different gestational ages and sometimes even 2 different dates of birth.

Superfetation is not the same thing as superfecundation. The latter implies the fertilization of 2 eggs released during one menstrual period from separate encounters. In this case, a woman will end up having fraternal or bi-paternal twins. In the case of superfetation, a woman conceives during different menstrual periods and apart from the gestational age, the twins will have different weights, heights, and even blood types.

Normally, when a woman is pregnant her ovaries stop releasing eggs to the uterus because the hormones send a signal to the body to “get prepared” for growing a baby. However, when superfetation takes place, ovaries generate and release another egg, which might also get fertilized.

There are a handful of known cases of this phenomenon and one of them happened in Australia to a woman named Kate Hill — she became pregnant twice within 10 days. She gave birth to 2 baby girls — Charlotte and Olivia, who have been classified as twins, however, the time difference between their conception was 10 days. Though they were born on the same day, their sizes, weights, and gestational development were different.

Superfetation can occur among animals as well. Mice, kangaroos, rabbits, felines, and sheep have all been claimed to be subject to superfetation. Fish have demonstrated this remarkable ability as well.

Have you heard about this phenomenon before? How would you react if you learned you got pregnant twice? We would be glad to hear from you in the comments!