Can You Get Pregnant Again if Youre Already Pregnany
Can a woman go meaning when she is already pregnant? In other words, can she have two foetuses in her uterus at different stages of development?
The technical term for this is superfetation. In humans, it's possible, simply it'southward very uncommon.
Two thousand years ago, that great Greek thinker Aristotle wondered most this very topic, specifically as regards the hare.
Aristotle noticed that when a hare gave birth, quite often the offspring in a single litter would fall into two singled-out classes: there would exist a bunch of full-sized robust infant hares, and another bunch of scrawny frail baby hares.
It was, he thought, equally though the mother hare had become pregnant and then — while significant — had conceived a second fourth dimension.
In that location was zip fundamentally incorrect with the smaller, weedy offspring, Aristotle thought, apart from the fact that they had not spent enough time growing in their female parent'southward uterus. And he was right.
Why is it then rare?
Normally in humans, there are three separate barriers to finish a female from getting pregnant again if she is already pregnant.
The first barrier is the hormonal changes after formulation that stop the ovaries from releasing another egg.
The second barrier is physical: a mucous plug. Almost immediately after conception, a plug forms in the cervix and sits at the top of the vagina. This plug stops any other sperm from entering the uterus and getting to a 2d egg.
3rd, there are physical and chemical changes that happen to the inner lining of the uterus in pregnancy. These changes usually stop a second fertilised egg from being able to attach to the uterine wall.
Notwithstanding, some beast species manage to get around all these barriers. Nigh ane to ii per cent of all pregnant cows show signs of being potentially fertile while they are already pregnant, and superfetation has been observed in animals such equally the mouse, the rabbit, the sheep, the buffalo, the mink, and the Australian swamp wallaby.
Could superfetation happen to me?
Superfetation is extremely uncommon in humans, with fewer than a dozen cases in the medical literature.
A typical case is that of Julia Grovenburg, a 31-year-old woman from Arkansas.
Ms Grovenburg and her partner had been trying to get meaning for three years, and had begun to consider adoption of a child.
Merely amazingly she conceived twice in 2009 — a few weeks apart. The Daily Mail claimed that, in a "desperate and final try to have children of their ain", the couple had given information technology 1 last try.
This is a curious apply of the word desperate.
I might exist old-fashioned, but it seems odd to me to regard sexual intercourse as "a drastic and concluding effort" to get meaning.
It makes you wonder what measures they tried before they got drastic.
Anyhow, Ms Grovenburg was pregnant — but then things went odd: the ultrasound showed two independent babies, each living in their own split up amniotic sac. Just ane was much larger and more than developed than the other.
As the ultrasounds scans mounted upwards for Ms Grovenburg, both foetuses seemed to exist growing normally and healthily, though it appeared as if one foetus had simply started a few weeks after the other.
In other words, Mrs Grovenburg had conceived a second baby a few weeks later becoming pregnant with the first.
No fashion to prove it
At present we don't have rock-solid proof that this is what happened. We would demand a serial of ultrasound scans to bear witness that.
These scans would need to certificate a series of changes — starting with no foetus or amniotic sac in the uterus, and then a single foetus in its single amniotic sac, and a 2d foetus actualization in their own second amniotic sac afterwards a few weeks.
People don't usually get a series of ultrasound scans immediately afterwards sexual intercourse, and so this kind of difficult information is difficult to go.
Simply at that place is some evolutionary biological science behind superfetation. Female European brown hares frequently have a second pregnancy while already pregnant. This means females tin accept near ane third more than offspring in each breeding flavor.
For humans, more babies each breeding cycle isn't ever a plus — specially if you lot're trying to become a good dark's sleep.
Posted , updated
Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2017-04-11/dr-karl-superfetation-can-you-get-pregnant-during-pregnancy/8430238
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