Superfetation is a rare event where another egg is released and fertilized when someone is already pregnant. According to reports, it affects around 0.3% of women in the world.
A 30-year-old woman gave birth to identical twins after falling pregnant while pregnant.
Cara Winhold, 30, and her husband Blake, 33, dreamed of expanding the family. In 2018 they had Wyatt but felt that they were not complete and began planning to have a new child.
Shortly after the birth of their first child, now four years old, they tried again to have another. The former teacher said she ʟᴏsᴛ a girl in 2019 and another child in 2020. After going through three ᴍɪsᴄᴀʀʀɪᴀɢᴇs – including this one that was almost fatal – the couple living in Texas, United States, became pregnant in March 2021,
It was then, when Cara had her second follow-up ultrasound, that she discovered that she was actually carrying two babies who had been conceived a week apart.
The incredibly rare phenomenon is known as superfetation. And it is an incredibly rare phenomenon that occurs when a second pregnancy occurs during an initial pregnancy, something that can take place days or weeks after the first.
Cara gave birth to Colson just after 4am on October 25, 2021, with Cayden following six minutes later. The twins were delivered at 35 weeks with Colson weighing 6lbs 5oz and Cayden 4lbs 9oz.
Cara, from North Richland Hills, said there is currently a five-pound weight difference between Colson, one of the babies, and his little brother Cayden, which means he buys two different sizes of clothes and diapers.
The young math teacher believes that her pregnancy was nothing more and nothing less than a “miracle”. “I got pregnant when I was already pregnant. I asked the doctor, ‘what happened? He wasn’t there the first time. What’s going on?’” she recounted.
“I totally believe that everything that happened in my pregnancy was a miracle. I like to believe that it was my way of getting back the two babies I ʟᴏsᴛ and that they helped me in some way. I can think of no other explanation for having twins: it was 100% natural and they don’t run in my family. It was a total surprise,” she explained excitedly.
Cara had a ᴍɪsᴄᴀʀʀɪᴀɢᴇ in 2019, another in 2020, which nearly cost her life, and another in February 2021. She found out she was expecting again the following month, in March 2021. Cara said, “My doctor had me come in for a scan at five weeks just to make sure everything was OK and on that scan there was just one baby. Because of my history she wanted to see me again in two more weeks just to check and make sure there was a heartbeat.”
When she left with her husband seven weeks into her pregnancy, they were told there were two babies.
“I burst into tears and I cried. I was overwhelmed, confused, but very happy,” Cara said. “My husband was in shock. On the very first scan there was a bag with a baby in it, then when I came back there was a tiny little bag in the corner that had another baby in it. You could see that baby A [Colson] was more developed, while the other one was like a tiny dot.”
Cara said her seven-month-old boys had always been different sizes because towards the end of her pregnancy, Colson was two weeks ahead of his little brother in terms of growth. Cara advises mothers who can relate to her story not to give up if they feel having children is part of their story.
In 2020, a woman named Rebecca Roberts fell pregnant with her daughter, Rosalie, when she was already pregnant with her son, Noah.