The Hospital It claimed that an ultrasound scan showed Ms Zhang's baby had her foot outside of Ms Zhang's womb (circled) after kicking through the wall of the uterus. Photo / Peking University
The Hospital It claimed that an ultrasound scan showed Ms Zhang's baby had her foot outside of Ms Zhang's womb (circled) after kicking through the wall of the uterus. Photo / Peking University
A pregnant woman in China has been saved after her unborn baby's leg poked out of her womb in an "extremely rare" case, a hospital claimed.
Zhang's unborn daughter is said to have kicked her so hard she tore a wound on the wall of Zhang's uterus, which had been left by a previous operation.
The girl was born at 35 weeks through a caesarean section, and she and her mother are in stable condition, according to the Peking University Shenzhen Hospital in southern China.
The hospital claimed the first-time mother was taken to the hospital at 10am on October 2 after having suffered severe abdominal pain for about five hours.
Zhang and her family thought she had a stomach-ache, the MailOnline reported.
After a B-scan ultrasonography, doctors were said to be shocked to see one of the baby's legs coming out of the woman's womb and poking into her abdomen.
Zhang claimed she had an operation to remove a fibroid last year and she fell pregnant six months later, according to the hospital. Fibroids are tumours that grow in a woman's uterus.
Based on Zhang's accounts, doctors suspected the previous incision ruptured.
The hospital said the baby was delivered 10 minutes after the C-section began.
Zhong Shilin, Zhang's doctor, claimed to have found a 7cm rupture on Zhang's uterus.
Zhong said Zhang's amniotic sac had also broken and the amniotic fluid had flowed into her abdomen.
Zhong added that Zhang's scar was at the bottom of her uterus and her baby had kicked on it.
In 2016, a 33-year-old mother in France developed a tear on her uterus, through which her unborn baby's foot, still enclosed in the amniotic sac, went through. Photo / New England Journal of Medicine
The Peking University Shenzhen Hospital, however, has declined to give more details of the operation as well as Zhang's recovering progress because of "privacy issues".
Women who have had fibroids removed should wait for one to two years until they plan for a baby, said Zhong.
He also suggested those women to have a complete check on their reproductive system before they decide to get pregnant.
Rupture pregnancy extremely rare
Only 26 cases of "rupture pregnancy are said to have been reported worldwide.
Last December, a 33-year-old French mother's developed a tear on her uterus, through which her baby's foot, still enclosed in the amniotic sac, popped.
