In an extremely rare medical case, a gestating baby’s legs can be seen protruding out of the mother’s uterus.
In an extremely rare medical case, a gestating baby’s legs can be seen protruding out of the mother’s uterus.
An ultrasound image showing the unusual positioning and a description of the contributing circumstances were recently published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
In the study, the French doctors wrote, “A 33-year-old asymptomatic woman...presented at 22 weeks of gestation with a large herniation of the amniotic sac through the left uterine wall that was detected by routine ultrasonography.”
Through scanning, they were able to eventually determine that she had a rupture in her uterine wall, notes Gizmodo.
Pierre-Emmanuel Bouet, one of the doctors, told the Washington Post that “the fetal legs did not cause the rupture.”
Instead, the likely cause is believed to be scarring from the woman's five previous C-sections which prevented the uterus from expanding as usual.
Despite being warned of the potential risks, the study says the parents decided to proceed with the pregnancy and ended up having a healthy baby boy at 30 weeks.