As doctors in south-east Brazil perform an emergency c-section on an overdue woman, they are shocked to find no baby in the womb.
The 37-year-old Brazilian woman arrived at the local women’s hospital with complaints of sharp pain and exhibiting a large belly and proof of her prenatal treatment, which showed she was 41 weeks pregnant. After doctors were unable to detect the baby’s heartbeat, they rushed her to into the operating room for a caesarean, according to the hospital’s director Rosalice Almeida.
Doctors at the Women’s Hospital in Cabo Frio, Brazil later determined that the woman they thought was 41 weeks pregnant was actually suffering from pseudocyesis, a false pregnancy.
When the medical staff spoke with the patient’s husband after finding no baby, he reportedly admitted that this was the second “pregnancy” in the past year. He told doctors and nurses that his wife told him that the child died at birth, however, she never produced a death certificate.
The woman was released from the hospital and advised to seek psychiatric care immediately.
