Chinese Woman Gives Birth to “Stone Baby”…After 58 Year Pregnancy

If you read the title of this piece thinking that we’ve gone right off the deep end, just remember that old adage–truth is stranger than fiction.

Huang Yijung, a resident of southern China, recently gave birth to a lithopedion (or “Stone Baby”).  Lithopedion is an extremely rare medical phenomenon whereby the fetus dies and ends up becoming calcified while remaining in the mother’s body.  It usually happens at a point in the pregnancy when the fetus is too large to be absorbed by the body, so it or the amniotic sac surrounding calcify in order to protect the mother from infection.

If there are no complications, the calcified fetus is harmless to the mother.

In 1948 Huang didn’t have enough money to have her baby removed after doctors told her it had died.  So she did nothing and went on with her life.

Now, after carrying her “stone baby” for 58 years, she finally gave birth–at 92 years old. [Weird Asia News]