Woman Almost Dies After Fetus Kicks a Hole in Her Uterus

ByElizabeth Licata

Fetuses kick much harder than a person would think. Sure, from outside, people just want to put a hand on a pregnant person’s stomach to feel the cute little fetus kicks. But from inside, they feel pretty powerful. Now doctors say one mother nearly died when her fetus actually kicked a hole in her uterus.

According to Essential Baby, a Beijing woman was 35 weeks pregnant when she suddenly started experiencing extreme stomach pains and low blood pressure. She rushed to the Peking University Shenzen Hospital, where doctors did an ultrasound.

The ultrasound showed the fetus had managed to kick straight through the wall of the uterus. It’s legs stuck straight out, and its thighs were stuck in the hole.

 

Fortunately, the insane “hole in uterus” story has a happy ending.

Doctors immediately delivered the baby via emergency C-section. The stunned doctors dove in so quickly, the whole surgery took 10 minutes. They repaired the 2.75-inch tear and stopped the bleeding. Miraculously, mother and baby are now doing fine.

The mother previously had fibroids surgically removed from her uterus. Scar tissue from that operation left a weak spot in the wall of the uterus. At 35 weeks of pregnancy, a uterus has generally stretched out all over. Scar tissue is not as stretchy as the rest of the uterus, and that can create weak spots. When the baby happened to kick, the uterine wall ruptured.

This is extremely rare.

This is an extremely unusual situation, but it actually happened recently to another woman in France. That woman had previously delivered five babies via C-section, and the scar tissue in her uterine wall was not able to expand as much as the rest of her uterus. In her case, the fetus just stretched out its legs right through the hole. The amniotic sac compressed the tear so it wasn’t bleeding, and none of this was discovered until a routine 22-week anatomy scan, when the doctor at the ultrasound saw the feet sticking out and thought he’d lost his mind.

These incidents led to some extremely dramatic birth stories, but both mothers and babies were fine in the end.

Also read:

(Image: iStockPhoto / shironosov)

Similar Posts