Woman Gets Pregnant Twice In One Week: How Did This Happen?

A woman in Brisbane, Australia, got pregnant twice in one week despite being told earlier that she might never be able to have children.

Kimberley Tripp, a 35-year-old resident from the capital of Queensland, was diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) when she was 15. At the time, her doctor told her that her condition might not allow her to have children.

Tripp and her husband, Adrian, 35, spent thousands of dollars for four rounds of IVF before finding out that they were pregnant in July 2019. However, their first scan revealed that they were expecting twins, who were conceived one week apart.

“We couldn’t believe it. I never knew something like that was even possible,” she was quoted as saying by 7News on Saturday. “The IVF specialist explained to me that due to all the medication I was taking for the IVF, it must have kick started my fertility.”

Tripp said she was overjoyed after she fell pregnant twice in one week. One of her babies was conceived through IVF and the other one was conceived naturally.

“I’ve wanted to be a mother for as long as I remember,” Tripp said, according to the report. “I wanted to get married and have a family and would have loved at least two children. Growing up with two older brothers, I knew I wanted a big family.

In the medical world, the phenomenon of conceiving twice during a short period is known as superfetation. Babies born from superfetation are most often considered twins. This type of pregnancy is rare, with a 2008 study only finding less than 10 recorded cases worldwide.

In 2020, 39-year-old Rebecca Roberts from the U.K. gave birth to a set of twins who were conceived three weeks apart.

According to Roberts’ account, she and her husband Rhys Weaver, 43, had become pregnant with baby Noah after the couple tried conceiving for more than a year. But during an ultrasound taken at week 12, the doctor said the couple had a second baby who was growing three weeks behind the first.

"I couldn't believe it had happened to me," Rebecca said, according to CNN. "But it did -- it's lovely. It's like winning the lottery."

Both Noah and his fraternal twin, Rosalie, were born by cesarean in September 2020 and were admitted to neonatal intensive care units.