This is one of those stories that proves life is stranger than fiction. Barbara Bienvenue was 34 weeks pregnant with quintuplets. Throughout her pregnancy, her boyfriend Paul Servat was so excited, he began to tell everyone. The miracle of quintuplets caught the eye of their community. The story made the news, other mothers of multiples began to offer the help and support, and some people even began to donate money.
First Barbara believed she was pregnant with twins, but as her belly grew, she believed they were triplets, then quadruplets, and then quintuplets. Besides the multiple babies, Barbara's pregnancy was fairly normal. She began lactating, she had morning sickness, a massive belly, and experienced contractions. However, when Barbara went into labor, something bizarre happened: there were no babies.
In fact, Barbara had never been pregnant at all. We've seen women who didn't know they were pregnant, but never women who believed they were pregnant but weren't. What Barbara experienced is a phantom pregnancy or pseudocyesis, a rare disorder where women can seemingly will the symptoms of pregnancy into fruition because they want so badly to be pregnant. In many ways, this is understandable. A woman struggles to conceive and the mind-body connections causes her body to believe she is pregnant as much as her mind does. While Barbara underwent psychiatric treatment to address her issue, Paul was heartbroken he wasn't going to have children. The father also took the necessary steps to reimburse the donations.
Have you ever heard of this bizarre condition? Let us know in the comments.
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