Is it possible for a woman to deliver a baby 28 weeks into the pregnancy and the baby not be developed?

Question

A family member found out she was pregnant in October. She had had two prior miscarriages. This was a high risk pregnancy to start with. Last week she said her water broke and she delivered the baby. She said in the delivery process the baby came out in pieces. Just wondered if anyone has ever heard of this, if so, what is the condition called. I find this far-fetched and hard to believe unless the weeks of pregnancy were wrong.

Answer 1

It is possible for a fetus to die but for the mother not to miscarry. As a result, the undeveloped or dead fetus can stay in the mother until either a miscarriage does occur or a doctor does a D&C or D&E. This situation is called a missed abortion. If the fetus stops developing early it just gets reabsorbed, but if the fetus grew for a long enough time that could be different.

I saw on the Merck site (section on miscarriage) that the placenta is sometimes delivered in pieces.

A "missed abortion" is defined in the Merck Manual (site) as having a dead fetus retained for more than four weeks.

I know someone who had a missed abortion. The pregnancy was taken by suction at 20 weeks. There was a complete sac and a complete and developed placenta but essentially no fetus to speak of.

It is possible someone between the delivery room and your question may have misunderstood something someone else said, as well.

"Missed Abortion" has been defined as occurring up to 28 weeks, although apparently after 1992 some people now define it as death of a fetus up to 24 weeks. Your family member could, however, had her fetus die at 24 weeks or before.

There are all kinds of bizarre things that go on with pregnancies. I don't think this is necessarily far-fetched at all.


ADDITIONAL NOTE AFTER ANSWERING ABOVE:

I looked it up to get the exact term of what happens when a fetus dies, and I saw that after a while a dead fetus may become either macerated or mummified. Below is a definition from Dorland's Medical Encyclopedia/Dictionary:


maceration (mac·er·a·tion) (mas”ər-a´shən) [L. maceratio] 1. the softening of a solid by soaking. 2. in histology, the softening of a tissue by soaking, especially in acids, until the connective tissue fibers are so dissolved that the tissue components can be teased apart. 3. in obstetrics, the degenerative changes with discoloration and softening of tissues, and eventual disintegration, of a fetus retained in the uterus after its death.

Please see my comment above on missed abortion at 24 weeks verus 28 weeks.

Answer 2

OK - this IS a possibility, although at this late in pregnancy it would be odd....

Sometimes the baby dies but is NOT spontaneously delivered. If the baby stays in long enough it begins to decay and when labor does begin the baby's body can be extremely fragile, and yes, as sad as it sounds, the baby's body parts can break off, fall apart, etc. Also, the baby would not be as developed as another baby at 28 weeks since he would have died usually several weeks prior to this event.

The improbable thing in this case is that no one noticed that the baby had died. I would assume that your family member was being seen by an obstetrician fairly frequently if it was a high risk pregnancy. Someone should have noticed if the baby's heart wasn't beating or if the baby had quit moving. That type of breakdown of the tissues doesn't happen overnight.

Claudine Crews CPM, LM
Midwifery Services of South Texas
http://midwiferyservices.org

Answer 3

Month 6 (Weeks 25-28)
Your baby becomes much more active, rolling upside down and side to side. Eyelashes and eyebrows are growing. Thumb-sucking may even occur during this time. At the end of the sixth month, your baby is approximately 12 inches long and weighs about 1 ½ pounds.


As you can see by this growth chart from the site below, a 28 wk. old baby is about 12 inches long and weighs about 1 1/2 pounds.

Answer 4

WOAH, I am very sorry to hear that. I have never, ever heard of a baby coming out in peices. Not even losing a baby at 20 weeks will a baby come out in peices. 28 weeks is early, and alot of challenges face you ahead if you deliver that early, but I will say that your baby will come out whole. Maybe you can google it and find out? Very strange, is there a possibility your family memeber is lying? You say its farfethched as if maybe you suspect that or something?

Answer 5

The baby was in pieces? That does not make any sense at all. A 28 week old is just past the point of viability with a low survival rate, but it would be all in one piece.

Answer 6

That is so weird. I have never heard of anything like that, so I won't be able to give you any advice, but I do know that by 28 weeks, her doctor would have noticed the "abnormality". Coming out in pieces doesn't sound very real to me.

Answer 7

never ever heard of a baby coming out in pieces......... is she sure it was a baby?? I dont see it possible at 28 weeks. they cheach heart beats and have a sonagram. they would have noticed it not having a heart beat. that is very far fethched unless u would actually see it

Answer 8

all i can think is maybe she was a little delerious from drugs or just the trama maybe she meant like the baby and then the sac thats all i can figure but i think you'll need to ask a doctor before you can call her a lier i wouldn't cause fights in a family over people on here's responses

Answer 9

did she try aborting it? that is the only way a baby would be in peices. Maybe she had acid in her uterus and it ate the babies skin? That is wierd. Even at 12 weeks, the abbay is one peice

Answer 10

yes its possible but chance of living mite be 50/50 but i never heard of it coming out in 2 pieces