You've probably come across videos of people not knowing they were pregnant (a cryptic pregnancy), but it's not often you hear about someone becoming pregnant within the same pregnancy.
She explained, "So basically what happened was we were planning for a baby and I got pregnant. I had an ultrasound — there was one baby. So I thought that I was pregnant and I figured, 'You know, I can't get pregnant again. It's fine if we continue to be careless.' I literally said that."
"A week later, I went to the ER because I was in so much pain I thought I was having a miscarriage, but come to find out I was in so much pain because my uterus was growing so fast because there were two more babies."
Yes, you heard that right. That means Dee was pregnant with TRIPLETS. Except, technically speaking, she was pregnant with one baby and one set of identical di/di twins, which she explained in a follow-up video. Still, despite conceiving one baby before the other two, she delivered them all on the same day, and today considers them triplets.
While baby C is fraternal and baby A and B are identical twins, Dee explained that they act and move as one unit. "They act alike. They tend to do all the same things, like they're really triplets. They don't really move as twins and another baby. They move together as triplets, and I love that so, so much," Dee said.
If you're like me and the people in the comments, you probably a) have a million questions, and b) feel like you possibly just unlocked a new fear.
So, I spoke to both Dee and Dr. Marieme Mbaye, a board-certified OB-GYN in New York City, to help explain everything I wanted to know about superfetation pregnancies, how they happen, and their likelihood of occuring.
First, Dr. Mbaye assured me that a superfetation pregnancy is an incredibly rare situation, and it's even more rare to see it happen naturally. She told BuzzFeed, "Almost all known cases of superfetation involve assisted reproductive technology (ART) like IVF or IU, which can bypass some of the body’s barriers to back-to-back pregnancies."
In Dee's case, she did not get pregnant through assisted reproductive technology, and neither twins nor triplets run in her family. So how did this happen? Well, Dr. Mbaye explained that for superfetation to carry on naturally, the body needs to go through two menstrual cycles, back-to-back, with each cycle resulting in a pregnancy. In Dee's case, that's likely what happened.
Not only does a person need to have back-to-back cycles, but Dr. Mbaye explained that superfetation can usually only occur within a two- to four-week time frame. Thus, it's not likely that a person could get pregnant if they were further along in their pregnancy and run the risk of having one baby being further developed than the other. As mentioned in Dee's case, her back-to-back pregnancies happened within a week's span.
Dr. Mbaye told BuzzFeed that superfetation pregnancies are treated similarly to any other multiples pregnancy, like twins or triplets, so long as all babies are meeting their milestones. She said, "If one baby grows faster than the other(s), the management plan would change in order to address that."
Not surprisingly, Dee said her pregnancy with triplets took much more care than when she gave birth to one baby. She told BuzzFeed, "It was very intense, with more testing and monitoring needing to be done. I had to change my maternity care appointments to being seen to bi-weekly for most of my pregnancy. I lived in the hospital for two and a half months after my water unexpectedly broke when I was at 24 weeks. It was exhausting, but also exciting to experience!"
Despite the complications during pregnancy, Dee expressed that she did have a good pregnancy, and all three babies were healthy and still are to this day.
After hearing about Dee's superfetation pregnancy, I was shocked I hadn't heard any cases like this before, and I wondered if I should add the possibility to the list of potential pregnancy complications to look out for. But Dr. Mbaye assured me that this is nothing to worry about.
She told BuzzFeed, "Superfetation is a cool phenomenon to know about, but it’s not a condition you should associate with risk or prevention. This is so incredibly rare and the body has so many very effective barriers in place to prevent it from happening that your chances are close to zero. Even if you're someone who may use ART to build your family, this is still incredibly rare and it's something that fertility protocols address in order to avoid it."
So, there you have it! While getting pregnant twice can happen, it's extremely rare.
And if you do find yourself in a situation where you're having multiples, Dee shared a piece of advice: "Enjoy the moment, don’t be scared, stock up on diapers and wipes (we changed 24 a day in the beginning), and create a good plan. I know things don’t always go as planned with pregnancies, but planning ahead solves a lot of issues."
You can keep up with Dee, her fiancé Antonio, and her kiddos on her TikTok, @deeandtplusthree.
