A BABY girl's birth has been described as a one-in-a-million "miracle" after she was delivered successfully despite growing in her mother's ovary rather than the womb.
Durga Thangarajah was delivered by Caesarean section after spending almost nine months inside her mother's right ovary, stretching the organ's tissue so taut that her hair and facial features were visible through the membrane.
Doctors say the ba
by was completely inside the ovary. Only one in 100,000 successfully delivered babies grows outside the womb. The most common site of an ectopic pregnancy is the fallopian tube, but foetuses can also become attached to the bowel, liver or abdominal wall. Involvement of the ovary is rarer, meaning the likelihood of delivering a healthy baby is just one in a million.
Obstetrician Andrew Miller, of Darwin Private Hospital in Australia's Northern Territory, who operated on Durga's mother, Meera, said: "It's an extraordinarily unusual outcome and I am not aware of anyone who has seen a (full] term ovarian pregnancy as we have here."
Baby Durga – which means "Goddess" in Hindi – was born on Thursday weighing 6lb 3oz.
Mrs Thangarajah, 34, said she had no idea her pregnancy was abnormal.
"I didn't know anything until I woke up after the Caesarean and the doctors told me," she said. "I'm feeling like the luckiest woman in the world."
Ovarian pregnancy is one of the rarest variations of ectopic pregnancies and usually has life-threatening complications for the mother.
Because of the high risk to the woman, expectant mothers with ectopic pregnancies usually have an abortion.
Mrs Thangarajah and her husband Ravi had arrived at the hospital on Thursday evening to have a planned Caesarean for their second child, unaware there were any complications.
Dr Miller said he was stunned when he went to perform a Caesarean section on Mrs Thangarajah and found the baby squeezed into the right ovary. "It truly is a miracle she got a living baby out of it – she's extraordinarily lucky. It could have ruptured at any moment," he said.
"This form of pregnancy is rare enough, but to have it go full term is unheard of. I have never come across it in any hospital."
Dr Miller said Mrs Thangarajah's egg did not travel down the fallopian tube and into the uterus, instead staying in the ovary for the whole pregnancy.
He said most women whose egg begins to fertilise outside of the womb have severe pain and bleeding in the early weeks of their pregnancy and are left with the choice of aborting the baby or risking their own life.
But Mrs Thangarajah had no symptoms apart from the usual morning sickness, discomfort and nausea.
The ultrasounds she had at regular check-ups had never shown anything unusual.
Professor James Walker, a spokesman for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in the UK, said this kind of birth happened in fewer than one in a million cases.
"It is extremely rare for a baby to develop outside the womb and survive," he said. "Most obstetricians will never have seen anything like this.
"There have been cases of babies developing inside the abdomen and surviving, but there are real risks for the mother."
ANALYSISA FOETUS can attach and grow almost anywhere inside the body so long as it has access to a blood supply.
The most common type of "ectopic" pregnancy is where the egg develops in the fallopian tube. But a foetus can also attach to the liver, bowel or abdominal wall.
Only about one in 100,000 abdominal pregnancies will result in a live birth. For a foetus to grow in an ovary is very rare because the blood supply is normally not sufficient to sustain the baby.
In the latest case, it is likely the baby grew attached to the ovary and the foetal sac merged into the wall of the ovary.
Experts believe the chances of a successful birth in such cases are one in a million.
