Sophie Small knows firsthand you can get pregnant while pregnant. And that’s because, though born on the same day, this mom conceived her twin girls, Holly and Darcy, 28 days apart!
The reason it’s so rare is because once an embryo is fertilized, a woman’s body puts up natural barriers to prevent another pregnancy from occurring. However, with superfetation, the body bypasses these barriers, resulting in another fertilized embryo. And that’s exactly what happened to Sophie Small, a mom from the UK.
“I was carrying two babies who were growing at different stages, but we didn’t know that,” the mom explained.
Sophie and her husband, Jonathan, already shared a son, Oscar. But the two decided to try and give the 6-year-old a sibling. Even when Sophie suspected she might be pregnant, the couple kept trying “just in case.” And what ended up happening is such a rare and special blessing!
28 days after conceiving their daughter Holly, the couple then conceived her “twin,” Darcy. But doctors didn’t realize this right away.
“They couldn’t work out why I was so sick,” Sophie recalled. “I had a scan at seven weeks and they said they could tell something wasn’t right. They couldn’t work out why one twin was bigger than the other. They had their own sacs and placentas so they could feed when they wanted to.”