Doctors were convinced that I was expecting seven babies. In the delivery room, everyone didn’t really breathe until they heard the seventh scream. We thought the hardest time was finally over.
Suddenly the doctor stopped.
“Wait…
Within seconds, the atmosphere changed. Something had just happened, something that no one in the room seemed to have been prepared for.
It all started with a routine exam
During one of my usual checks, the doctor had stayed particularly in front of the screen for a long time. I looked at his face, trying to guess if he had noticed anything disturbing.
Eventually, he turned to me.
We see seven fetuses.
— Seven?
From that moment on, this number accompanied me every day.
My life has completely changed. People looked at me in awe, worried and asked me questions. For my part, every night, I lie down paying attention to the movements of the babies.
I almost didn’t think of anything else. I asked him only one thing: that everyone comes into the living world.
The pregnancy It was extremely difficult. Each new exam was accompanied by enormous tension. Each step taken was like a goal that had to be achieved gradually, without knowing for sure what the next would be maintained.
The closer the birth, the more I also perceived the concern of the doctors. They tried to speak calmly, but I knew they were fully aware of the risks.
The Day I Had Feared All My Pregnancy
When the first contractions began, they immediately took me to the hospital. In the delivery room, everything was ready. The staff knew what to expect: seven newborns had to come into the world.
And then the moment he had feared for all the previous months began.
First I heard a first scream.
Then a second.
A third, a fourth, a fifth and then a sixth.
Finally, the seventh.
After this last cry, great relief seemed to be going through the whole room. I felt like I wasn’t the only one holding my breath. Doctors and nurses also seemed to have waited for this moment: confirmation that the seven babies were finally there.
“Seven,” someone said.
For a few seconds, I really thought it was all over.
Seven children were born. Seven screams had sounded in the room. I just wanted to close my eyes and cry with relief.
I was exhausted, but I felt the worst was now behind me.
It was precisely at this moment that one of the doctors suddenly stated:
“Wait…
Only one sentence changed the atmosphere of the room
After these words, everything seemed to freeze.
The sounds of the devices, which until then were confused in an indistinct background sound, suddenly seemed incredibly loud to me. He was lying down, without strength, trying to remain conscious, unable to understand what might still happen.
After all, the seven babies were born.
I turned my head to the teacher. Throughout my pregnancy, I had never seen him really confused. I had always given the impression of knowing exactly what I was doing and what the next step should be.
This time it was different.
His hands were immobilized. His face expressed something he hoped to see even less in such an experienced doctor: a real surprise mixed with worry.
— Professor? She asked a nurse slowly. What is it?
He did not respond immediately.
“On the ultrasound, there were seven of them,” she said, smothered. We all saw seven. The 30th week and just before the operation…
“Yes, seven heartbeats,” someone from the team who was already taking care of the newborns replied. All the babies are here.
And that’s when I understood the essentials.
The problem was not the seven children who had just been born.
It was something that was still in me.
Something no one had planned.
“What’s going on? I screamed. Doctor, tell me what’s going on!
No one answered me directly.
Doctors began to exchange short, quick prayers. Someone asked for instruments, while another person called the anesthesiologist. I didn’t understand everything they said, but the tone of their voices was enough to make me understand that the situation was no longer going as planned.
All the fear accumulated over nine months has returned in an instant.
I remembered sleepless nights, stress-filled consultations, doctor’s eyes and all the conversations about the risks. Only then did I realize that what I had taken for the end of our most difficult test might not be.
I thought I had just accomplished something unimaginably difficult. However, the faces of the people around me told me that an even more unexpected event was happening.
“There is still one”
The teacher always looked forward. Finally, he spoke quietly, as if he himself had trouble believing what he had just discovered.
“There is still one…”
Moments later, he repeated:
There is still one.
In his voice, he could not hear anything of concern alone. Now there was awe.
At first I didn’t understand the meaning of his words. My thoughts mixed, my body was totally exhausted, and in my ears still echoed the seven screams that had filled the room a few moments before.
But I saw the staff reactions. A nurse had pale. The anesthesiologist had approached without a word. The teacher used an instrument.
“But the ultrasound,” the midwife muttered. We had counted. We checked it seven times.
“The ultrasound didn’t see it,” the professor replied, not looking the other way. It was placed in such a way that it was simply invisible. Behind the other seven. Hidden. As if he…
He hesitated for a moment.
“As if I were waiting.
I screamed, but not pain. It was a scream of fear and a total misunderstanding.
During all these months, I had been convinced of how many children I had. I prayed for seven babies. I thought of seven babies. I had heard their movements and all my heartbeat preparing to welcome precisely seven children.
And now, I was learning that, throughout this long and difficult pregnancy, another baby I had been there. A child that the doctors had not seen and that I did not know existed.
“It’s impossible,” I whispered.
The teacher looked me in the eye. The surprise visible a few moments earlier had disappeared from his face. He had given way to absolute concentration.
“It’s possible,” he replied firmly. You’ve just given birth to seven children. Now you’re gonna give birth to the eighth. Breathe. You must not lose consciousness. Can you hear me? Breathe, breathe!
