'What a miracle': Bettinna Carlos shares her newborn twins were conceived separately
Bettinna Carlos recently revealed that her newborn twins were conceived at different times due to a rare pregnancy phenomenon.
On Monday, July 6, the actress and host posted a carousel of photos showing sonograms of her uterus, her excited daughters Gummy and Amina learning about their twin brothers, and a precious shot of the newborn twins side by side.
It looked like any photo carousel a new parent would share. But Carlos shared her boys were different because they were superfetation twins.
According to a 2024 case report published in the National Library of Medicine, "Superfetation is an exceedingly rare occurrence in which ovulation, fertilization, and implantation take place after a fetus is already present as a product of previous conception." An ABC News report in 2023 said there are around only 10 cases of such a pregnancy reported in the world.
Carlos shared her shock in learning about her rare condition in her Instagram post.
A week after she and her husband Mikki Eduardo learned they were pregnant, they went to her obstetrician in La Union for an ultrasound to check for viability as she'd previously had an ectopic pregnancy.
"Congratulations! It's not ectopic. Hold on. Parang I see two..." Carlos recalled her doctor telling her.
"Upon checking, she did see another sac with a tiny circle at the bottom right corner with an even tinier part in it flickering. There was also a heartbeat already on the second embryo," Carlos wrote, adding that the ultrasound took place when she was six months pregnant.
"Our twins were not from the same egg. In fact, they were not fertilized at the same time (hence the difference in size). Google calls it 'Superfetation twins'. We call it a miracle," Carlos wrote.
"Nauna yung isa, sumunod yung pangalawa pero sabay silang lalabas," she added, quoting her doctor.
The actress went on to share that she'd wanted twins since she was young because she thought they were cute. She never thought it would come true, though, because neither she nor her husband of six years has the twin gene.
Still, with two daughters already—Amanda Lucia or Gummy, 15, and Amina, 3—Carlos kept hoping.
"And I told God 'Lord sana po boy na. And then gawa kami ulit kagad sana boy ulit Lord para di malungkot yung boy at may kalaro siya. Pero Lord up to You'," she wrote. She didn't think it would happen, though.
"And lo and behold, we have twins and both are boys," Carlos said. "What a miracle, Lord. Wala Ka talagang limit. Thank You for our boys."
