Woman Pregnant For 46 Years Gives Birth To Mummy-Like Baby

By 02:58 Wed, 14 Aug 2013 Comments

In 1955 in a small village just outside

Casablanca, 26 year old Zahra Aboutalib is

pregnant with her first child. She was

looking forward to giving birth, but after 48

hours of painful labour, she was rushed to

the local hospital. Doctors informed her

that she would need a caesarean section.

On the ward Zahra saw a woman in

terrible pain die in child-birth. She fled the

hospital fearing she would meet the same

fate if she remained.

In the days that followed, Zahra continued

to suffer excruciating labour pains but the

baby remained resolutely in her womb.

After a few more days the pains ceased

and the baby stopped moving.

In Moroccan culture, it is believed that a

baby can sleep inside the mother to protect

her honour. Zahra believed this myth and

put the pregnancy out of her mind. She

adopted three children and in due course

they made her a grandmother.

Zahra Aboutalib, Many years later when

Zahra was 75 years old, the pains

suddenly returned. Her son being

concerned for his motherÃ¢ï¿½ï¿½s well-being

wanted her to see a specialist. For this they

had to travel to Rabat where they saw

Professor Taibi Ouazzani. He suspected the

protruding belly was being caused by an

ovarian tumour and arranged for her to

have an ultra-sound scan. This revealed a

large mass that he could not identify.

He referred Zahra to a specialist

radiographer for a second opinion. He

could see it was a calcified structure of

some sort, but it took a detailed MRI scan

to reveal that it was the baby Zahra had

conceived 46 years earlier.



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