One mother-of-four’s rare pregnancy story is drawing a lot of attention and surprise online.
Pittsburgh-based mom Deonna Fletcher is sharing her story of how she underwent a rare phenomenon known as superfetation during her pregnancy.
Fletcher and professional photographer Antonio Livingston learned they were expecting their first child in 2020. It was great news that the couple welcomed with joy, and they carried on with their relationship.
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“I figured I can’t get pregnant again. It’s fine if we continue to be careless, I literally said that,” Fletcher said with a laugh on a TikTok video that’s attracted nearly two million views.
A week later, Fletcher had to be admitted to the hospital after enduring some lower abdominal pain. She’d soon learn her uterus was growing because she got pregnant again with two more babies. She said an ultrasound revealed those two new little ones.
Fletcher also noted how neither twins nor triplets run in her family or Livingston’s family. They just happened to experience this very rare event.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, superfetation involves getting pregnant a second time while you’re already pregnant.
“Your body goes through changes that make it nearly impossible for you to become pregnant while a fertilized egg (embryo) is already growing inside your uterus. With superfetation, a new pregnancy bypasses your body’s natural barriers that prevent a new pregnancy while you’re pregnant. Your chance of experiencing superfetation is near zero,” the description reads.
Cleveland Clinic also says a woman would go through two menstrual cycles back to back, with each resulting in a pregnancy. The babies would not be twins or triplets since because they’re formed during different menstrual cycles, they’d have different gestational ages.
Fletcher gave birth to three healthy baby girls — Amber, Dream, and Amani — who are now two years old, according to her TikTok page. It is unclear when the babies were all conceived, and Fletcher has not responded to Atlanta Black Star’s request for clarification.
Watch Deonna Fletcher explain her superfetation pregnancy journey here.
She and Livingston also have welcomed a baby boy into the family: Antonio Jr.
It is possible to become pregnant twice in a relatively short timeframe, depending on a person’s menstrual cycle, the timing of sexual activity, and fertility. With superfetation, a woman ovulates, becomes pregnant, and then ovulates again and becomes pregnant a second time while the first pregnancy is still ongoing.
Still, the possibility of detecting superfetation within one week of conceiving is highly unlikely. In humans, blastocyst formation begins about five days after fertilization and is less than a millimeter in diameter.
Cleveland Clinic notes that superfetation events often make headlines due to their rarity. In fact, there have only been 10 documented cases on record.
In 2021, reports of another superfetation pregnancy surfaced when an English mother learned she was expecting twins who were conceived weeks apart.
Rebecca Roberts learned she was pregnant with her son, Noah, but at the 12-week ultrasound appointment, doctors found another baby — her daughter, Rosalie.
She had to give birth to Rosalie at 30 weeks after Rosalie stopped growing and then delivered Noah at 33 weeks.
There was another mother in 2020 who delivered twin girls who were miraculously conceived 28 days apart, but doctors didn’t learn she also underwent superfetation until she gave birth after discovering both girls were two completely different weights.
As for Fletcher, she delivered all three of her babies at the same time by C-section in January 2021, according to her TikTok page.
