What is a lithopedion baby?
Lithopedion is a word derived from the Greek words lithos, meaning stone, and paidion, meaning child, to describe a fetus that has become stony or petrified. Lithopedion is a rare complication of pregnancy which occurs when a fetus dies and becomes too large to be reabsorbed by the body.
Can a dead fetus calcify in the womb?
Amazingly, women occasionally survive abdominal pregnancy without surgery when calcification converts the dead fetus into a stone baby. It can then remain undetected for decades until discovered incidentally during a medical examination/operation for other reasons or at autopsy.
What is the cause of lithopedion?
Lithopedion describes an intraabdominal calcified dead fetus. A lithopedion can result from a primary abdominal pregnancy, or from a secondary abdominal implantation following tubal abortion or rupture of tubal or intrauterine pregnancy.
What causes calcified fetus?
This phenomenon is called a lithopedion, otherwise known as a stone baby. First described back in the 10th century, the calcification usually occurs when an abdominal pregnancy — one that occurs outside the womb, somewhere inside the mother’s abdomen — goes awry.
How rare is a lithopedion?
Lithopedion is a very rare event that occurs in 0.0054% of all gestations. About 1.5 to 1.8% of the abdominal babies develop into lithopedion. There are only ~ 330 known cases of lithopedion in the world.
How long can a dead fetus stay in the womb?
Hospitals are obligated to remove the dead fetus from a woman as quickly as possible; at most within 3 days from when the loss was discovered.
What is a calcified stone baby?
What is calcification in pregnancy?
A calcified placenta occurs when small, round calcium deposits build up on the placenta, causing it to deteriorate gradually. The process occurs naturally as you get closer to the end of your pregnancy. However, if placental calcification occurs before your 36th week, it could cause complications for you and your baby.
What causes a calcified fetus?
Can a woman with ectopic pregnancy give birth?
The easy answer to both of those questions is yes: You can deliver a healthy, full-term baby after an ectopic pregnancy. And yes, your odds are slightly higher of having another ectopic pregnancy.
What are the symptoms of a dead fetus?
The most common symptom of stillbirth is when you stop feeling your baby moving and kicking. Others include cramps, pain or bleeding from the vagina. Call your health care provider right away or go to the emergency room if you have any of these conditions.
How long can you keep a dead fetus in your womb?
Can a dead fetus harm the mother?
In the case of fetal demise, a dead fetus that has been in the uterus for 4 weeks can cause changes in the body’s clotting system. These changes can put a woman at a much higher chance of significant bleeding if she waits for a long time after the fetal demise to deliver the pregnancy.