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The Herald, May 17, 1979

AUCKLAND. – A woman who had her womb removed eight months ago gave birth to a healthy 2,3kg baby girl on Tuesday.

Mrs Margaret Martin (29), a mother of three girls, had a hysterectomy last September. But doctors said a fertilised egg already in her body survived the operation and lodged in her intestines, where it grew, reports Iana-Reuter.

The baby, as yet unnamed, was born after a simple operation at a hospital here on Tuesday.

“It hasn’t happened before and it probably won’t ever happen again,” a hospital spokesperson, Dr P. Jackson, said.

He said women without wombs had become pregnant in the same way, but the foetuses had always died.

Mr Creg Martin (30) said he and his wife had not known she was pregnant until two months ago. “We did not whether to laugh or to cry.

“She’s a miracle baby,” he said.

Dr Jackson said a child had recently been born to a British woman who had half her womb removed, but Mrs Martin had no womb at all.

He said the egg had fallen out of Mrs Martin’s fallopian tube during her hysterectomy. The size of a pinhead, it had attached itself to her bowl where it was nourished by the bowl’s blood supply.

Five months later, doctors found a “mass” in Mrs Martin’s stomach and were shocked to detect a baby’s heartbeat.

The main danger facing the foetus had been starvation, Dr Jackson said, adding: “We were also worried about the possible lack of protection for the baby because it was not surrounded by the womb.”

Doctors operated on Tuesday to deliver the baby, four weeks premature, because she was beginning to starve.

LESSONS FOR TODAY-

•  A miracle is an act not fully explained by natural forces, but attributed to supernatural forces, God, especially. There are many definitions of miracle. But, biblically speaking, miracles involve God doing something uncommon and usually awe-inspiring in order to reveal himself to mankind.
• Those who believe in God know that He works in mysterious ways and can make the impossible happen. The baby in the story was a miracle baby because it defied the norm by surviving outside the womb when most babies conceived that way normally die.
•  It is always important to have regular medical check-ups because there are some medical conditions that can be rectified if only, they are detected early, such as this miracle pregnancy.