10 Facts About Abdominal pregnancy

An abdominal pregnancy is a rare type of ectopic pregnancy where the embryo or fetus is growing and developing outside the womb in the abdomen, but not in the Fallopian tube, ovary or broad ligament.

Primary abdominal pregnancy refers to a pregnancy that first implanted directly in the peritoneum, save for the tubes and ovaries; such pregnancies are very rare, only 24 cases having been reported by 2007.

Typically an abdominal pregnancy is a secondary implantation which means that it originated from a tubal pregnancy and re-implanted.

Suspicion of an abdominal pregnancy is raised when the fetal anatomy can be easily felt, or the lie is abnormal, the cervix is displaced, or there is failed induction of labor.

Sonography can demonstrate that the pregnancy is outside an empty uterus, there is reduced to no amniotic fluid between the placenta and the fetus, no uterine wall surrounding the fetus, fetal parts are close to the abdominal wall, the fetus has an abnormal lie, the placenta looks abnormal and there is free fluid in the abdomen.

Ideally the management of abdominal pregnancy should be done by a team that has medical personnel from multiple specialties.

Advanced abdominal pregnancy refers to situations where the pregnancy continues past 20 weeks of gestation.

Outcome with abdominal pregnancy can be good for the baby and mother, Lampe described an abdominal pregnancy baby and her mother who were well more than 22 years after surgery.

Pregnancy is outside the uterus, abdominal pregnancy serves as a model of human male pregnancy or for females who lack a uterus, although such pregnancy would be dangerous.

Abdominal pregnancy has served to further clarify the disease pre-eclampsia which was previously thought to require a uterus for it to occur, however pre-eclampsia's occurrence in abdominal pregnancy (with the conceptus outside the uterus) helped throw light on pre-eclampsia's etiology.