If you are reading this post, there are chances that you think the title is just for clickbait.
Only that you would be wrong.
Within a few weeks after the egg has been fertilized by a sperm, usually between four to twelve weeks, many women will start seeing and feeling the symptoms of being pregnant. This is a normal occurrence. In some rare cases, a pregnant woman may not be aware of being pregnant until the baby develops fully and the process of labor begins. Imagine a woman presenting a case of pelvic pain to the clinic only for it to turn out that she's in full-blown labor. It is a medical condition known as cryptic or stealth pregnancy.
I bet you think I made a mistake in writing 'crypto' as 'cryptic' in the last statement above. Again, you are wrong.
In Nigeria ( I don't know if this is a thing in another part of the world), there is a special type of pregnancy that has been nomenclatures as crypto pregnancy. Cryptic pregnancy and crypto pregnancy have a lot of alphabets in common and could easily be mistaken for one another, they do also have a lot in common when it comes to their meaning. Read on.
In Africa generally, marriage is primarily for procreation before anything else. Thus, it is a common sight to see married couples seeking help (medically or otherwise) if they don't smell the fruit of the womb some months after tying the nuptial knot. A few months is even enough for some to start seeking solutions. In fact, some traditions don't allow women to inherit anything from their late husbands if they don't bear any child in the union.
This has led to the proliferation of fertility clinics in the country. These clinics focus primarily on finding solutions for couples who desire the fruits of the womb. Of course, there is no problem in this kind of specialization, only that some fertility clinics use unorthodox, or should I say, underhand means to achieve their goals all in the name of helping their patients.
Mr. and Mrs. A have been married for more than 15 years without any children. They have explored many of the fertility clinics in town without any success. Lucky smiled at them when they got introduced to a small, not-so-popular fertility clinic on the outskirt of town. Even though it cost them a lot of money, within a few weeks, Mrs. A started feeling and seeing the symptoms of pregnancy - genuine ones.
The doctors at the clinic must have magic wands.
She was advised never to visit any other clinic or diagnostic center throughout the period of her pregnancy in her own interest. Why would she by the way? The doctors here are perfect. They proffered a solution to a seemingly hopeless situation. She was billed another huge sum for delivery, which they joyfully paid. After a few hours of Caesarian sectioning under general anesthesia, Mrs. A woke up with a beautiful baby girl beside her. The couple's joy knows no bound.
If only they knew that the child is not theirs.
Mrs. A was only injected with some vitamins and hormones that simulated the pregnancy symptoms she experienced. It was a progressive procedure that progressed the symptoms of the pseudo-pregnancy with time. At the point of delivery, she was cut open truly to simulate Caesarian sectioning, but another person's newborn was secretly presented to her side as hers. Her postnatal treatment includes drugs that will remove all the symptoms of pregnancy and allow her belly to return to normal.
That sums up what crypto pregnancy is. It is a criminal procedure being perpetrated by some people, usually fake medical personnel, on unsuspecting women who are desperate enough to believe everything they are told once they feel the symptoms of being pregnant. In some rare cases, the women seeking the fruit of the womb are in the know. They connive with the medical personnel to deceive, and oftentimes, defraud their rich husbands. It is particularly common among the tribes that deny wives access to their husbands' estates after the demise of the husbands because the women bore no fruits in the union.
Crypto pregnancy is obviously for the rich because of the amount of money involved in the entire process of "programming the woman to be pregnant" (that's what they call it) and delivering the crypto baby after nine months. Nowadays, even not-so-rich women are venturing into it either as a last resort to save their marriages, deceive and extort their husbands or as a means to obtain rights to their husband's properties in case of demise.
While some of the not-so-rich folks are able to rally around to pay the cost for the initial programming to get pregnant, many are forced to carry this obviously fake pregnancy for years due to a lack of funds to meet up with the delivery fees. Sometimes, the logistics involved in getting newborns make these miracle fertility clinics deliberately delay the delivery process of crypto pregnant women.
These criminal fertility clinics often operate in sync with baby factories - illegal places where teenage girls (and women with unwanted pregnancies) are deliberately impregnated and made to churn out babies to fill the supply gap gaps created by crypto-pregnant folks.
This is not fiction but what currently operates in some parts of my country, Nigeria. You can read the interesting report from an investigative journalist who currently took a journey into the world of crypto pregnancies here.
What do you think?