- English mom Rebecca Roberts, 39, delivered “twins” conceived three weeks apart.
- The phenomenon is called “superfetation” and occurs when an egg is released from an ovary mid-pregnancy and implants in the uterus.
- Roberts’ premature “twins” are healthy and now six months old.
English mom Rebecca Roberts, 39, had quite the surprise at her 12-week ultrasound. Already pregnant with one baby, her doctor discovered a second smaller baby as well. She was now expecting “twins.”
Her ob-gyn was just as shocked as Roberts. “My initial reaction was, ‘How had I missed the second twin?’ ” Dr. David Walker, ob-gyn at Royal United Hospital in Bath, told Good Morning America. “And following this [I] was slightly relieved that it was not my mistake but a quite extraordinary pregnancy.”
She has been documenting her experience on the Instagram account @roberts.supertwins. Her “extraordinary pregnancy” is known as superfetation. It can occur when an egg is released from the ovary after she’s already pregnant and implants alongside the first embryo in the uterus.
Superfetation is *incredibly* rare. Research suggests that superfetation may only happen in one out of a few million pregnancies; and it’s thought that there are fewer than 10 cases reported in medical literature. “There are cases of women ovulating twice in the same cycle, or women who have ovulated while already pregnant,” Mary Jane Minkin, MD, an ob-gyn at the Yale University School of Medicine, previously told Women’s Health. The other way that superfetation could occur is if a woman has a double uterus, according to research published in the Journal of Reproduction & Sexual Health.
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At the time, Roberts learned her younger baby might not make it. She gave birth to her “twins,” at 33 weeks for baby boy Noah and 30 weeks for baby girl Rosalie, on Sept. 17, 2020. Noah weighed 4lb 10oz and Rosalie 2lb 7oz. She shared the news on Instagram: “The twin specialist is still convinced she was conceived later and these babies really are miracles ❤️❤️ I feel like we should be telling the world 🎉🎉”
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Noah went home after three weeks in the NICU, and Rosalie spent 95 days at the hospital with special care and a feeding tube. She was finally able to go home right before Christmas. Since then, Roberts has been consistently sharing development updates and sweet photos with her “super twins” as they grow.
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