Superfetation is a rare condition in which a woman becomes pregnant with twins but not quite at the same time, with a few days of difference in conception. This usually happens in women who are undergoing some treatment to get pregnant, such as the use of ovulation inducers, which ends up delaying the interruption of ovulation.
Understand more about the different types of fertility treatments.
In a common pregnancy after conception, the woman's body prevents ovulation from happening again and that is why another egg cannot be fertilized. However, there may be some hormonal change that makes it possible that even if she has been pregnant for a few days, the woman can ovulate again, at the risk of being fertilized if she has unprotected relationships, then becoming pregnant with twins, when in reality should only be expecting 1 baby.
How to tell if twins are different ages
The only way to know that the twins have different weeks of life is through an ultrasound that indicates that one baby is less developed than the other. However, not always that the woman is pregnant with twins in different stages of development does not mean that there was overfetation.
Initially the woman will not notice any difference and will discover that she is pregnant in the normal time, when she has symptoms such as dizziness, nausea, sensitive breasts or delayed menstruation. The doctor may suspect that it is a pregnancy of twins when he verifies that the levels of Beta HCG are very high and confirms that it is a pregnancy of twins performed by ultrasound. And it is at this time that superfetation can be discovered. See what the normal levels of beta HCG are.
Superfetation is a very rare condition and usually occurs in women who have become pregnant due to hormone treatment.
How it can happen
Pregnancy of twins at different ages can happen because the sperm stays alive inside the uterus for about 3 days. Assuming that the woman was ovulating and there was intimate contact, if 1 sperm manages to enter the egg, there will be conception and this indicates that she is pregnant with only 1 baby.
If for some reason even after this conception the woman presents another mature egg, if it is fertilized 2 or 3 days later by another sperm that may have come from the same sexual relationship or not, then she will be pregnant with the 2nd baby. In that case she will be pregnant with twins and they will be false twins, or bivithelines, because each will have its placenta.
How is delivery
The most common is that the difference in conception days for each baby is very small and therefore should not influence the time of birth. In any case, if the difference is large, with a difference of more than 4 weeks between one baby and another, when the youngest is ready to be born the delivery must be performed but this depends on several factors, because the older baby cannot spend more than 41 weeks in the womb.
Generally, twins are born by caesarean section and need to stay in the hospital for a few days until they weigh more than 2 kg and are healthy to be discharged, which does not always happen at the same time.
Check the care to be taken during pregnancy and delivery of twins.
