Remembering Jessica Allen’s Story.
Being able to conceive life within you is already a blessing, but it doubles the joy and excitement when a woman gets pregnant with twins. But what if, after giving birth to twins you discovered a major plot twist that could only seem to happen in movies?
Well, 31-year-old Jessica Allen’s story is not based on any movie plot, her bizarre experience actually happened in real life. It started when she signed up to become a surrogate mother for a Chinese couple back in 2016 in exchange for $30,000.
After undergoing in vitro fertilization, she discovered that she is pregnant with twins. As a surrogate mother carrying two babies, her initial payment was raised to $35,000 (around P260,000).
In December 2016, Jessica gave birth to two healthy identical twins via C-section and immediately delivered her babies to the Chinese couple who paid for her to carry the twins.
She thought everything went well but a month later Jessica received a photo message from the Chinese couple with a question: “They are not the same, right? Have you thought about why they are different?”
Apparently, the twins do not look the same even if they were first declared as identical twins.
In an interview with ABC News, Jessica said: “I did notice that one was much lighter than the other. You know, obviously, they were not identical twins.”
And the major plot twist happened; the DNA result showed that the second baby is actually Jessica and her husband Jasper’s biological son.
“I don’t know how to describe it… we were floored. We were like, how did this happen?” Jessica narrated.
It turned out that Jessica actually experienced “superfetation” or “an extremely rare condition where a woman becomes pregnant with two fetuses with a different stage of development,” according to Wikipedia.
Although she is already pregnant, Jessica continued to ovulate releasing another fertilized egg.
Based on medical history, there are also some cases of superfetation in humans but it is more common in some species of animals.
Dr. Jennifer Ashton explained, superfetation is equally risky as multiple pregnancy, preterm delivery, high blood pressure, and preeclampsia.
Meanwhile, after going through a series of legal processes, Jessica eventually reunited with her son in February 2017.
“I carried my own child. I didn’t know he was mine,” Jessica added.