You ever heard of a woman being pregnant for over a decade—and the baby never coming out? Sounds like a tabloid headline, right? But deep in the world of rare medical anomalies lies something real and utterly astonishing: the phenomenon of the lithopedion—also known as the “stone baby.”
The Truth Behind the 13-Year Pregnancy Legend
In 1999, doctors in Morocco were stunned to discover that a 75-year-old woman had been “pregnant” for 46 years. A calcified fetus—long dead and turned to stone—was found inside her abdomen. It made international headlines, reviving older cases and myths, including one that claimed a woman had carried a pregnancy for 13 years before it was discovered.
While the specific 13-year story is likely exaggerated or misreported, it’s based on the same real and documented phenomenon.
What Is a Lithopedion?
The term "lithopedion" comes from Greek: lithos meaning stone and paidion meaning child. It happens when a fetus dies during an ectopic pregnancy (outside the uterus) and is too large to be absorbed by the mother’s body. To protect itself from infection, the body essentially calcifies the fetus, encasing it in hard tissue over time like a pearl in an oyster.
It becomes a "stone baby"—a medical curiosity that might remain undetected for decades, even a lifetime, unless discovered during surgery or imaging.
Known Cases Around the World
There have been fewer than 300 confirmed cases of lithopedion in recorded medical history, making it extraordinarily rare. But the cases are haunting:
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In India, a woman had a stone baby removed after carrying it unknowingly for 36 years.
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In Colombia, an elderly woman thought she had a tumor—only to discover a calcified fetus inside her abdomen from a pregnancy 40 years earlier.
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In France, the first known documentation of a lithopedion dates back to the 16th century.
In most of these cases, the women never gave birth, had no miscarriage, and sometimes didn’t even know they were pregnant. Pain, bloating, or a sense of something being "off" led to eventual investigation.
[Image search prompt: “X-ray of stone baby lithopedion medical case”]
Why Doesn’t the Body Reject It?
Normally, the body either absorbs the fetus or causes severe symptoms that require immediate care. But if the fetus dies in a sterile area of the abdominal cavity, and no infection occurs, the immune system may choose containment over removal—encasing it in calcium to neutralize the threat.
That’s why these cases can go undetected for so long. Some women have lived full lives, raised families, and never realized they were carrying a stone baby from decades earlier.