Baby born 'pregnant' has C-section to remove fetus of her twin

At seven months pregnant, Colombian mother Mónica Vega discovered she had two umbilical cords inside her. Photo / 123RF

A baby who was born by caesarean had to have a C-section herself after she absorbed her twin in the womb, Mamás Latinas reported.

In March 2019, at seven months pregnant, Colombian mother Mónica Vega discovered she had two umbilical cords inside her.

However, only one was baby was connected to her while the other was connected to her unborn daughter Itzmara, who had a mass that was her parasitic twin.

Doctors diagnosed Itzmara with a rare condition called "fetus-in-fetu", where a malformed fetus is found in the body of its twin.

They also told the mother that she needed to deliver Itzmara right away via a C-section so they could operate on her daughter to remove the mass.

Her doctors feared that without surgery, her daughter's parasitic twin could grow and injure the Itzmara's organs.

Twelve hours after the mother had the C-section, the doctors performed a C-section on her daughter as well to remove the mass, which they found had no heart or brain.

Itzmara was in good health following the surgery.

According to the National Institutes of Health, fetus-in-fetu is very rare, with only one case occurring in about every 500,000 births.

Additionally, authors of one fetus-in-fetu case study published in August said only 200 previous cases of FIF had been documented in medical journals.