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Gynaecology is mostly a serious matter. But it also has some humorous and sometimes inexplicable moments. Here's a collection of some strange cases.
Can an unborn baby cry inside the womb? There are records of unborn babies heard crying in the womb. Some have even been heard hiccupping! The most bizarre incident was recorded when an obstetrician was aiding delivery with Obstetric Forceps. The baby started crying loudly while still in the womb. The cries stopped after the baby came out, smiled wryly, before collapsing into a deep slumber.
Ever heard of coffin deliveries? Aeons ago, dead pregnant women would sometimes be kept for several days before burial. If the woman was already in a coffin, a baby would be found lying alongside her body days later. And this is exactly what transpired for one man. He was away when his pregnant wife suddenly died and was hastily buried. He ordered exhumation, and as the coffin was being opened, the cries of a baby were heard.
The natural route of normal delivery is the vaginal canal. A caesarean section is nowadays a common option, but are there other routes? In Roman times, babies were delivered through all imaginable orifices, almost by magic. An interesting case is a woman whose baby was delivered through the belly button. After labouring for several days, there was a sudden protrusion on her umbilicus through which a baby's head popped out. A helper simply inserted a hand through the umbilical opening and fished out the baby. Other odd cases were deliveries through the anal canal.
The first Caesarean deliveries were hardly survivable. They were done crudely without anaesthesia, and often in unsterile environments. Some women even did Caesareans on themselves. One opened her abdomen and womb with a kitchen knife. It's anyone's guess if she survived the whole ordeal.
The final one is a woman who had her womb surgically removed, only to turn out pregnant years later!
I'll leave it to the readers to judge what is factual, and what could be medical fiction!
Dr Alfred Murage is a Consultant Gynaecologist and Fertility Specialist. [email protected]
