Skip to main content /WORLD
CNN.com /WORLD
CNN TV
EDITIONS






Double pregnancy 'act of God'

ROME, Italy (CNN) -- An Italian woman is due to give birth to a baby girl this week -- while also six months pregnant with triplets.

Flavia D'Angelo, 20, is carrying the double pregnancy because of a medical condition called superfoetation.

The situation occurs when two foetuses exist in the uterus after eggs have been fertilised at different times.

It is an extremely rare and potentially dangerous condition, doctors say.

D'Angelo is reported to have denied suggestions that she might have had hormone or fertility treatment, instead saying it was a "gift from God."

The condition happens when a woman continues to ovulate after the fist conception.

D'Angelo, who lives with her husband in Ascolipiceno, told Italian television: "I am afraid because I do not know what will happen. Right now we are just going by supposition."

Her doctor Giovan Battista Serra, from Rome's Cristo Re hospital said D'Angelo's condition was even more surprising because of a string of circumstances.

D'Angelo is young, while multiple births occur more often when older women give birth for the first time.

Also the length of time between D'Angelo's first and second births is unusually long -- it is normally only one month on the few occasions that it has happened.

D'Angelo's husband, 25-year-old marketing consultant Raccardo Darquini, began laughing on hearing the news of the double pregnancy.

"My first reaction, maybe because I was nervous, was to laugh," he told television.

"She instead began to cry and she was asking all the time to look again to make sure."

Their lawyer Domenico Antonio Latino said: "There is now much expectation for the photographs of Flavia, still pregnant, with a new-born baby in her arms."

But gynaecologists warn the births will not be without their complications. The triplets are said to be one girl and two boys.

D'Angelo may find it difficult to deliver the first baby without triggering the premature birth of the others.



 
 
 
 



RELATED SITES:
See related sites about World
Note: Pages will open in a new browser window
External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.


 Search   

Back to the top