Woman falls pregnant while already pregnant after conceiving five days apart

1 March 2022, 15:00

By Polly Foreman

A mum has revealed she conceived her two daughters just a few days apart in an extremely rare phenomenon known as superfetation.

A woman has explained how she fell pregnant while already pregnant, after she conceived her second daughter just five days after the first.

Odalis Martinez was thrilled to find out she was expecting with her husband Antonio in 2020, which came just months after the couple had tragically done through a miscarriage.

When Odalis, 25, attended her first scan, she was shocked to learn that she was expecting two babies - and that they were both conceived on separate occasions.

The extremely rare phenomenon is known as superfetation, which is when a new pregnancy occurs soon after the first one.

Odalis, who hails from California, welcomed her daughters Lilo and Imelda in August 2021, and said there is often confusion as they look so similar.

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She said: "I got pregnant while I was already pregnant.‘I just say that they’re twins but after reading a lot of articles I know that they’re technically not twins but it’s just confusing for people so I just tell them like 'yeah, they’re twins.'

"They’re technically not even identical but everyone thinks that they are. They definitely look a lot alike.‘Sometimes me and my husband, well more my husband, will get them mixed up with each other.

"I usually don’t get them mixed up anymore, just because I’m with them 24/7 so I feel like I can tell them apart pretty easily, but a lot of people get them mixed up."

Speaking about her excitement to learn she was pregnant after a heartbreaking miscarriage, Odalis said: "I was extremely happy that the pregnancy test was positive and we were on our pregnancy journey again.

"I felt really lucky. I know a lot of people that have been trying to conceive and just haven’t been able to so that was also a fear of mine but thankfully that wasn’t our case and I fell pregnant really quickly.

"I felt really really happy and also scared because of the miscarriage. It was pretty terrifying throughout my whole pregnancy not knowing if that was going to be the outcome again.

"Hoping for the best but knowing there’s always a possibility that things might not go as planned."

She also opened up about attending her 12-week scan, and shared her concern that there wouldn't be a heartbeat.

Odalis said: "The doctor comes in and I’m trying to mentally prepare myself for anything and when she found the first baby and the heartbeat I was crying with so much happiness.

"And then she started going back and forth and I was wondering why – my mind just went to the worst-case scenario because of the traumatic experience that we had.

"That’s when she told me that she had found another baby that also had a heartbeat.

"I was just crying with happiness. I felt like the first baby that we had lost was in the room with me and saying it was going to be OK.

"When you go to the first ultrasound they check everything and around the day that you actually conceived the baby and that’s when she told me that they were conceived five days apart, which I didn’t even know could happen."

She added: "I feel like it’s some sort of miracle that I experienced this double pregnancy. Because of our first experience, it made everything during this pregnancy feel so much more special and magical.

"It was a really beautiful moment to finally be able to hold them in my arms.

"When I held them and knew that they were OK, I can’t even explain the feeling. I love my family and my husband, but I had just never experienced a love and happiness like that."