IF you’ve attended a sex education class or heard a talk about ‘the birds and the bees’, you probably have an idea of what people go about making babies.
Conception happens when sperm travel up the vagina and fertilize an egg, usually during a precise window of the menstrual cycle.
But as it turns out, standard P-to-V sex isn’t the only way to get pregnant.
From “instant pregnancy” to oral sex, people have managed to get pregnant in some pretty implausible ways, according to professor and director of the Clinical Anatomy Learning Center at Lancaster University, Adam Taylor.
“There are also examples of women who conceived in extremely rare circumstances that would otherwise be impossible,” wrote Dr. The conversation.
1. ‘Sudden Pregnancy’
It’s basically in the name – “instant pregnancy” can occur due to semen splashing onto the external genitalia.
For this highly unlikely form of conception to occur, sperm would then need to find their way into the vagina and swim towards the ovaries.
This type of pregnancy is so rare, according to Dr. Taylor, that “sperm do not survive more than half an hour outside the body.”
Even under typical conditions, it can be difficult for sperm to fertilize an egg, said the clinical anatomy expert.
“Although healthy sperm swim at up to 5 mm per minute, they only survive for a limited period of time – up to five days – in the female genitalia,” he added.
“Of the hundreds of millions of sperm that are ejaculated into the vagina during intercourse, where conditions are ideal, only 200-300 will reach the egg,” Dr. Taylor added.
He noted that it is not possible to get pregnant with sperm in bath water or hot tubs, as the water tends to disperse the sperm and the chlorine kills it.
2. Through oral sex
Getting pregnant through oral sex can be nearly impossible — but Dr. Taylor pointed to a bizarre medical case report to demonstrate “the stubborn ability of the sperm to navigate toward the egg.”
The report, published in 1988details the case of a woman who was born without a vagina and went to the doctor complaining of intermittent abdominal pain that felt strangely like contractions.
Doctors discovered that it was actually labor pains, as she was pregnant and gave birth to the baby via cesarean section.
“Given that the girl was born without a vagina, this ruled out sexual intercourse as a method of conception,” Dr. Taylor said.
“But precisely 278 days earlier, the girl had been admitted to hospital with stab wounds to the stomach.
“The injuries were the result of a knife fight between her, her jealous ex and her new partner.”
The report details a truly bizarre chain of events.
The woman performed oral sex on her new partner shortly before the knife fight.
“So when surgery was done to repair her stomach wounds, it potentially washed away any sperm that still existed around her abdominal cavity – allowing them to migrate and fertilize the egg,” Dr. Taylor explained.
“Sperm in the peritoneal cavity – the space between the abdominal organs and the body wall – is not unheard of.
“This cavity contains a special fluid that helps the organs move when food passes through.
“And research has shown that this fluid can also support sperm survival by allowing it to travel through this cavity to the egg.”
3. Through anal sex
Most people tend to assume that you can avoid the possibility of getting pregnant if you have anal sex.
This is true in most cases, as pregnancy through backdoor penetration is extremely rare.
But Dr. Taylor explained that this can happen in people who suffer from a reproductive abnormality called cloacal malformation, which occurs in one in every 50,000 girls.
I gave birth alone just six minutes after realizing I was pregnant
A range of symptoms often alert mothers to the fact that they are pregnant – not to mention bloating.
But in rare cases, what is known as a cryptic or hidden pregnancy can occur.
This is when a person does not know they are pregnant until they are at least five months old, either because they are explaining the symptoms or denying them.
Some mothers don’t even have a noticeable bulge.
This was the case for Lauren Newey, 22, who gave birth just six minutes after realizing she was pregnant.
The mother woke up with stomach cramps, which got so bad that she thought she might have appendicitis.
But to Lauren’s shock, her water broke – and she found herself pushing to deliver her baby.
She told The Sun: “I didn’t have much time to think about it all. It happened so quickly.”
Read more about Lauren’s incredible story here.
In humans, the tissue grows and divides the cloaca – the “common hole” for urinating, defecating and reproducing – into two or three openings, depending on sex.
But in rare cases, this tissue does not completely separate the rectum from the vaginal cavity.
“When this happens, it can allow sperm to swim through any opening in the tissue dividing wall toward the egg to fertilize it,” Dr. Taylor said.
“The fertilized egg will normally implant in the uterus, as always.”
4. Superfetation
If you are already pregnant, mechanisms will usually kick in to prevent your body from getting pregnant again – hormones will rush through your body to stop ovulation and produce thick mucus that clogs the cervix and stops sperm from entering the uterus.
“This is true even for women born with two uteruses,” noted Dr. Taylor.
“But an event, called superfetationThrow those rules out the window.
“This process causes a second pregnancy to occur while the first is already progressing.
“This phenomenon is so rare that scientists do not fully understand how it happens. The majority of recorded cases occurred in women who used in vitro fertilization.”
If this happens, you could get pregnant two to four weeks apart, often meaning the babies could be born together as twins.
In most cases, these pregnancies are uncomplicated and progress smoothly.
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
