Asian woman gives birth to world's first full-term ovarian pregnancy baby

Melbourne, May 30 : A baby born to an Asian couple residing in Australia has been hailed as a 'miracle' after she survived a full-term ovarian pregnancy.

Baby girl Durga Thangarajah defied the odds and was born at Darwin Private Hospital on May 29 after a two-hour delicate operation saw doctors carefully cut her from her mother Meera's right ovary.

Doctors are stunned at the medical phenomenon, saying an ovarian pregnancy is one of the rarest variations of ectopic pregnancies and generally has life threatening complications.

Because of the high risk, doctors often advice expecting mothers who visit the hospital in the early stages with an ectopic pregnancy to abort the foetus.

Recovering in her hospital bed, Mrs Thangarajah, 34, was trying her level best to hold back tears as she told how she had no idea her pregnancy was abnormal.

"I didn't know anything until I woke up after the caesarean and the doctors told me,'' News.com.au quoted her, as saying.

"I'm feeling like the luckiest woman in the world," she added.

Obstetrician Andrew Miller said Mrs Thangarajah's egg didn't travel down the fallopian tube and into the uterus, instead staying in the ovary for the full term.

He said most women whose egg begins to fertilise outside of the womb present themselves to hospital with severe pain and bleeding in the early weeks of their pregnancy and they have no choice but to abort the baby or risk their own life. But Mrs Thangarajah had no symptoms apart from the usual morning sickness, discomfort and nausea.

And her ultrasounds at regular check-ups have never showed anything unusual, said Dr Miller.

He said had the ectopic pregnancy been detected in the early stages Mrs Thangarajah would have been advised to abort.

ANI