Rare Births

I had just turned on the t.v. and I caught the last part of this segment that was about "stone babies". I wanted to learn more about this but I couldn't find anything on the term. Does anyone know what I am talking about?

[AnnieBrooke]

The term refers to a slang way to describe when an embryo has accidentally managed to implant in the body somewhere else besides the uterus, and has grown to some point before finally dying because it didn't have enough blood supply or couldn't get born. Essentially, they are ectopic pregnancies that have come to rest somewhere inside the abdomen where there is some room to grow.  After the embryo or fetus in this situation fails, it dies, and then the body then begins to coat the embryo with calcium.  Over the years, it will essentially calcify, and thus the name "stone babies."   Some few (like less than 6) women who science knows about with this have carried the babies around inside them for decades.  These pregnancies are very rare because they more often kill the mother (through excessive internal bleeding) than go on to become a fetus.  One lady on the show had triplets, one of whom was attached to an intestine instead of to the uterus, and it was caught early and monitored carefully (incidentally saving her life), and they did manage to deliver the baby by c-section.  They had to leave the placenta for a second operation because it was too entwined in the intestines.  But that was one of those more-than- one-in-a-million things.

[pixijal]

I saw a special on this on Discovery health.  Very interesting.  'Stone Babies' don't happen with women who get pregnant in today's time, as u/s and prenatal care find the problem, and remove it.  It is the result of an ectopic (any pregnancy that occurs outside the uterus), that continues to thrive as it by chance hooks on to a sufficient blood supply.  Since the fetus cannot be delivered vaginally, it will stay inside the mother's body (back in the day).  As a defense mechanism, the mother's body continues to deposit calcium on it to shut it off from the rest of her functioning body.  As a result, the baby practically gets preserved in this calcification.  

There was a 94year old woman from Morroco.  When she was in her early twenties, she was 9 months pregnant when she went into labor.  She went to the primitive hospital to give birth, and was spooked when she heard one of the other women screaming.....so, she snuck out of the hospital and went home to deliver.  Weeks went by, in terrible pain, and the baby never came out.  She felt it quit moving, and was completely aware of the fact that the baby had died inside of her.  She had one living son already.  When she was 94, she was constantly complaining about her abdomen hurting, and her son took her to the hospital.  They found the baby that she never delivered (outside of the uterus, and tubes), and cut it out.  It was practically perfectly formed, and preserved in the calcification.....a stone baby.  

[peekawho]

I saw that one!  

[SeeingSpots]

Don't think MedHelp likes you to post links, but if you go to obgyn.net and do a "search" for stone baby, they have some ( WARNING: graphic) actual photos of a 32 week old stone fetus.  It's pretty creepy... and sad, as the woman knew she was pregnant, but "it just never came out".  Looks just like a little stone doll.  If only she'd gotten a C-section.. it would've had a good chance, being 32 weeks old!

[mami2karina]

Wow I had to look that one up!  I had never heard of anything like that before.  Can you imagine going into labor, having contractions, being sent home to wait and never going back?  Yeah right!  I read some of the threads on there and that happened to a woman.  What did she have in her head?  What did she assume happened to the baby growing inside of her???