“Superfetation” - A woman can get pregnant while already being pregnant

The superfetation phenomenon in animals has been mused from as far back as the days of Aristotle by the great philosopher himself in the fourth century B.C. The occurrence came to Aristotle’s mind after he made an observation about hares giving birth to litter that is made up of healthy and imperfect offspring.

And as most days, Aristotle managed to crack this one by theorizing that the imperfect offspring had spent less time in their mother’s womb as compared to the others, a result of a possible second pregnancy. Turns out he was right.

Superfetation is a situation in which one pregnancy comes subsequently after an initial pregnancy. It occurs when an ovule (female egg) is fertilized by a sperm cell while conception has already taken place. It has been documented in animals like the swamp wallaby, buffalo, panther, American mink and badger. Before you go making assumptions about human twins, the phenomenon is very rare in humans because a woman’s reproductive cycle is programmed to prevent such occurrences from happening.

For this to happen, ovulation must take place and this is rare if a woman is already pregnant. Save for one of such cases that happened to a 31-year-old woman from Arkansas named Julia Grovenburg who became pregnant twice in a space of two weeks.

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