Zahra, a woman from Morocco, carried a fetus in her body for 47 years before going to the hospital to have it removed.
Zahra was 26 years old when she became pregnant, but she didn’t give birth to the baby until nearly half a century later. Her strange story began in 1955, when her water broke and she went to the hospital to deliver. However, just before she was brought to the doctor, she witnessed a woman and her baby die during a cesarean section. Terrified by what she saw, Zahra fled the hospital.
When she returned home, the baby had stopped moving. She tried to forget about the fetus and chose to believe in a myth—that the baby was “asleep.” According to Moroccan culture, some babies can remain in the womb to protect a woman’s honor.
Although Zahra's honor didn’t need protecting—she was a married woman—this belief brought her comfort. Miraculously, Zahra continued to live, though she never became pregnant again. Two years later, she and her husband adopted three children and carried on with a normal family life, never giving another thought to the “sleeping baby.”
For over 40 years, Zahra remained in good health until one day she experienced excruciating stomach pain. An ultrasound revealed that the “sleeping baby” was in fact an ectopic pregnancy, where the fetus had developed outside the uterus, likely in the fallopian tube. Instead of rupturing or being expelled, Zahra’s body accepted the fetus as a foreign object—even though it had died.
After 47 years, the fetus was surgically removed from Zahra’s body. It weighed over 3.2 kilograms (7 pounds) and measured around 43 centimeters (17 inches) in length.
