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Lithopedions, Also Known As “Stone Babies,” Are Rare Unborn Fetuses That Can Harden And Hide Within A Mother’s Body For Decades

morrowlight - stock.adobe.com - illustrative purpose only, not the actual person

Back in 1554, in the small town of Sens, France, there lived a woman named Colombe Charti. And that year, she went into labor.

Colombe and her husband had not had any children yet and were excited to welcome their first baby into the world. She had carried her fetus close to full term, and the delivery was expected to go well.

But then, out of nowhere, Colombe’s contractions stopped, and her baby was never born.

So, for the next three years, she rested in bed and tried to recover from the emotional loss. At the same time, Colombe was suffering from bizarre pains in the center of her abdomen.

Her neighbors thought that the baby must have still been inside her body– which was a logical assumption at the time. However, Colombe went on to live for twenty-eight more years, and her baby never saw daylight.

Well, that was until she actually passed away. At that point, her husband was still wrought with confusion and decided to ask two surgeons for their help. The doctors ultimately performed an autopsy on Colombe’s body and discovered something they had never seen before.

Inside her abdomen was a very hard and roughly egg-shaped object. And at first, the surgeons believed they had unearthed some sort of tumor.

Once they actually broke into the object’s tough outer shell, though, they discovered a fetus. More specifically, a baby with a head, shoulders, two arms, and knees bent toward its chest. The fetus also had legs and feet– which were fused together– one tooth and a full head of hair. Additionally, the baby’s gender was discovered to be female.

This never-born fetus in Sens, France, is now one of the earliest known documented cases of a lithopedion. Also known as a “stone baby,” lithopedions calcify as time goes on and never exit their mother.

morrowlight – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purpose only, not the actual person

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