French Woman's Stomach Pain Turns Out To Be Baby Growing In Bowel

A French woman was in for a shocker when she visited the emergency room complaining of abdominal pain. The ultrasound scan revealed that the 37-year-old was 23 weeks pregnant, with the foetus growing inside her bowel instead of the uterus. Her case was published as a case study in the New England Journal of Medicine, stating that she sought medical treatment after 10 days of severe abdominal pain and worsening bloat, but scans revealed she was pregnant with a “normally formed” foetus.

This medical anomaly is called ectopic pregnancy, a case in which the fertilised egg implants itself outside the uterus. Ectopic pregnancies make up about 2% of all pregnancies, while this woman's case-- foetus growing in the bowel-- makes up 1% of ectopic pregnancies. 

What Is This Phenomenon?

Ectopic pregnancies are said to be dangerous to the pregnant woman, according to the New England Journal, as they can cause internal bleeding, tube rupture or shock, and rarely result in a surviving fetus. However, the French woman's baby is said to be healthy for now.

The symptoms of this condition involve vaginal bleeding, abdominal pain, dizziness, and weakness. According to the woman's case study, the woman was transferred to a tertiary hospital where the baby was delivered at 29 weeks and placed in the neonatal intensive care unit.

Although her baby was delivered, as delivery after 24 weeks is feasible, the rate of survival is only about 80% to 90%, according to the Health University of Utah. However, the doctors avoided the woman suffering potential complications of such pregnancies like foetus death and haemorrhaging. Both, the baby and mother were discharged from the hospital after spending three months in intensive care. 

This is not the first time doctors have found an embryo growing in an odd place. According to a report in the New York Post, a doctor shared on Tiktok, the case report of a fetus growing in a woman's liver "I thought I had seen it all," Dr Michael Narvey, of the Children's Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba, said in the clip. "We see these sometimes in the abdomen but never in the liver. This is a first for me," he added.