Mum Terminates Pregnancy After Learning Her Unborn Baby Has Mermaid Syndrome

A 23-year-old mother has terminated her pregnancy after discovering that the baby she was�carrying�has a condition known as “mermaid syndrome”.

Wu�was six months pregnant when she was examined by doctors in Yichang City, in Central China’s Hubei Province and her scans showed�that her unborn child did not have two legs, but instead had a tail-like growth, including�a stunted liver, and the baby also lacked�a bladder, reports said.

Doctors told Wu that the foetus was suffering from a condition known as sirenomelia, or ‘Mermaid Syndrome’, a rare congenital deformity in which the legs are fused together, giving them the appearance of a mermaid’s tail.

Wu decided to terminate the pregnancy�after specialists estimated that the baby would only be able to survive for several�hours after birth.

The causes of Mermaid Syndrome are still a medical mystery, and it is said to occur only once in every 100,000 pregnancies.

One of the world’s most well-documented cases of sirenomelia was that of�Shiloh Pepin,�who was�dubbed ‘Mermaid Girl’.�Despite undergoing 150 operations during her lifetime, she passed away in 2009 at the age of 10.

Source:�Dailymail.co.uk�and�Kidspot.com.au

Clare Whitfield Chief Editor

Clare Whitfield is the Editor of Stay at Home Mum and a recognised voice in practical home management for Australian families. Based in the northern suburbs of Sydney, she balances editorial leadership with life as a stay at home mum to two school age children. Her background in home economics and more than a decade of experience in recipe development, family budgeting, and household systems inform her work.

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