I know we're already pushing it, dear, this is the biggest you've been in years... But see that lady over there, with the red tank top? 'Oh wow' is right, there's got to be triplets in there. If you push yourself for me, I'll get you something special~ Just concentrate on her belly, okay? I know you want to do it anyway~
"Are you sure? These quads are huge and it already feels like I'm gonna pop if I breathe wrong. She looks like she's having a rough day too....but I want to know what special thing you'll get me. We really should have gotten a bigger sweatshirt since it's already barely covering my middle."
My fingers worry the hem of the sweatshirt, the stretched fabric leaving a three inch sliver of my burgeoning belly visible for all eyes to gawk at. You're trying to help me rebuild my tolerance after only carrying small babies for the last few years. There's been a resurgence of pregnancy in our area which means my powers have been sought out now more than ever. Not that we were hurting for money but if I could manage holding nearly double my alloted amount (coincidentally that was four full term fetuses) then we could go on vacation somewhere fun.
"Okay.....okay." I grab your hand as my thoughts focus on her gravid form. I feel the swirling magic building within me—engulfing my body until it culminated into my womb with a growing pressure. The children become unsettled, shifting within me as the magic began to take effect. As her stomach shrinks mine balloons forward. The bubbling intensity of the magic forces me forward, hunching over with panting breaths while my eyes don't move from the target.
My skin is hot and itchy with each addition rapidly transporting into my womb in rapid succession. The clothes stood no chance before with my wide bump but now the sweatshirt is pushed up with the growth spurts and the extra large waistband of the pregnancy leggings shifts down. With the magic all perception changes—the expectant mother had no memories of previously being pregnant and all passerbys only saw me extremely pregnant with seven heavy babies. My grip on your hand is tight, my breathing ragged as my middle pushed my thighs apart almost scraping the floors.
She had been right to be uncomfortable. The children are huge, nearly as large as the original four as they attack my insides. There is a tightening around my belly that makes me grunt uncomfortably. Were these false contractions or the real thing? Hopefully we'll get them back to their mother before we have to deal with bringing seven little ones into the world.
69 notes
·
View notes
Imagine we have several kids together already, but you saw a big belly out in the wild and you transferred it to yourself, and when u get home now you have to explain to our kiddos (and me) why papa is big all of a sudden
our perfect little family of five—you, me, and our three sweet kids that are a perfect mixture of us both. the two oldest are seven and nine with youngest being two (a very happy surprise) and it was the right number of kids for now. we never really had a set plan of when or if we had more kids though we did often play with the idea of having a dozen more kids and even having a dozen more after that. i was content with our small gaggle of kids and feeling full of love.
then i made the mistake of going out by myself. i was picking up groceries for dinner that night and seeing all the happy families walking around made me ache. all the little nuggets in their strollers, strapped to their parent's chest, or toddling next to their parents because they finally learned to walk. our youngest now runs anywhere he can if we don't hold onto him. i miss when they were all that little.
someone had bumped into my back in my dazed day dream. when i turn to ask if they were okay and my eyes fall upon an expectant father. he was clearly all belly—he must have been small before they got pregnant. or he was carrying at least twins nearly full term they were heavy and low on his frame. he looks so happily and full......and i'm struck with a pang of jealousy.
he walks, or really waddles, away with a hand supporting his back back to his partner. i couldn't move, my feet glued to the floor and my eyes follow behind him. it was an accident—i never meant to transfer the pregnancy. it's all too late now because that familiar bubbling inside is already starting while i'm going down an aisle to look for pasta.
when i walk into the house you're overtaken by the sight of me. i no longer have my normal soft body that you are constantly grabbing onto and teasing me about putting more little ones in me. i very clearly have a surprise passenger or two that is taking up residence in my womb, my shirt stretched across my navel and my pants wide open from the sheer size. i didn't know how far along i was or just how many babies were cooking in me now. i am not nearly as wide as he was but the weight of my belly is pulling at my sides and back.
you just give me a look from the couch when you see the state of me. the kids are equally confused but excited at seeing me pregnant. it'll be hard to explain but first let's get the groceries inside so we can get dinner started. yes there is a lot of extra food and snacks. blame the cravings
27 notes
·
View notes
By Dina Fine Maron
January 24, 2024
Scientists have cleared a significant hurdle in the years-long effort to save Africa’s northern white rhinoceros from extinction with the first-ever rhino pregnancy using in vitro fertilization.
The lab-assisted pregnancy, which researchers will announce today, involved implanting a southern white rhino embryo in a surrogate mother named Curra.
The advance provides the essential “proof of concept” that this strategy could help other rhinos, says Jan Stejskal of the BioRescue project, the international group of scientists leading this research.
Curra died just a couple months into her 16-month pregnancy from an unrelated bacterial infection, Stejskal says.
However, the successful embryo transfer and early stages of pregnancy pave the way for next applying the technique to the critically endangered northern white rhino.
The process was documented exclusively by National Geographic for an upcoming Explorer special currently slated to air in 2025 on Nat Geo and Disney+.
BioRescue expects to soon implant a northern white rhino embryo into a southern white rhino surrogate mother.
The two subspecies are similar enough, according to the researchers, that the embryo will be likely to develop.
Eventually, this approach may also help other critically endangered rhinos, including the Asian Javan rhinoceros and the Sumatran rhinoceros, which each now number under 100 individuals, Stejskal says.
But the northern white rhino’s current situation is the most pressing by far.
There are no males left, and the only two remaining animals are both elderly females that live under armed guard on a reserve in a 700-acre enclosure in Kenya called Ol Pejeta Conservancy.
The boxy-jawed animals once roamed across central Africa, but in recent decades, their numbers have plummeted due to the overwhelming international demand for their horn, a substance used for unproved medicinal applications and carvings.
Made from the same substance as fingernails, rhino horn is in demand from all species, yet the northern white rhino has been particularly hard-hit.
"These rhinos look prehistoric, and they had survived for millions of years, but they couldn’t survive us,” says Ami Vitale, a National Geographic Explorer and photographer who has been documenting scientists’ efforts to help the animals since 2009.
“If there is some hope of recovery within the northern white rhino gene pool — even though it’s a substantially smaller sample of what there was — we haven’t lost them,” says conservation ecologist David Balfour, who chairs the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s African rhino specialist group.
Blueprints for rhino babies
To stave off the animal’s disappearance, BioRescue has used preserved sperm from northern white rhinos and eggs removed from the younger of the two remaining females.
So far, they’ve created about 30 preserved embryos, says Thomas Hildebrandt, the head scientist of BioRescue and an expert in wildlife reproduction based at the Leibniz-Institute of Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin.
Eventually, the team plans to reintroduce northern white rhinos into the wild within their range countries.
“That’d be fantastic, but really, really far from now—decades from now,” says Stejskal.
Worldwide, there are five species of rhinoceros, and many are in trouble.
Across all of Africa, there are now only about 23,000 of the animals, and almost 17,000 of them are southern whites.
Then there are more than 6,000 black rhinos, which are slightly smaller animals whose three subspecies are critically endangered.
In Asia, beyond the critically endangered Javan and Sumatran rhinos, there’s also the greater one-horned rhino, whose numbers are increasing and currently are estimated to be around 2,000.
The BioRescue effort has experienced many setbacks, and even though the team now has frozen embryos, the clock is ticking.
The researchers intend to use southern white rhinos as surrogate moms for the northern white rhino embryos.
However, scientists want any northern white rhino calves to meet and learn from others of their kind, which means they need to be born before the two remaining females die.
“These animals learn behaviors — they don’t have them genetically hard-wired,” says Balfour, who’s not involved with the BioRescue work.
But birthing new animals in time will be a challenge.
“We’re really skating on the edge of what’s possible,” he says, “but it’s worth trying.”
Najin, the older female, will be 35 this year, and Fatu will be 24.
The animals, which were born in a zoo in the Czech Republic, are expected to live to about 40, says Stejskal, who also serves as director of international projects at the Safari Park Dvůr Králové, the zoo where the animals lived until they were brought to Kenya in 2009.
Impregnating a rhino
The next phase of BioRescue’s plan involves implanting one of their limited number of northern white rhino embryos into a southern white rhino surrogate mother — which the group plans to do within the next six months, Stejskal says.
They’ve identified the next surrogate mother and set up precautions to protect her from bacterial infections, including a new enclosure and protocols about disinfecting workers’ boots.
But now, they must wait until the female rhino is in estrus — the period when the animal is ready to mate — to implant the egg.
To identify that prime fertile time, they can’t readily perform regular ultrasounds at the conservancy as they might do in a zoo.
Instead, they have enlisted a rhino bull that has been sterilized to act as a “teaser” for the female, Hildebrandt says, adding that they must wait a few months to make sure that their recently sterilized male is truly free of residual sperm.
Once the animals are brought together, their couplings will alert conservancy staff that the timing is right for reproductive success.
The sex act is also important because it sets off an essential chain of events in the female’s body that boosts the chances of success when they surgically implant the embryo about a week later.
"There’s little chance the conservancy staff will miss the act. White rhinos typically mate for 90 minutes," Hildebrandt says.
What’s more, while mounted on the females, the males often use their temporary height to reach tasty plant snacks that are generally out of reach.
Boosting genetic diversity
With so few northern white rhinos left, their genetic viability may seem uncertain.
But the BioRescue team points to southern white rhinos, whose numbers likely dropped to less than 100, and perhaps even as few as 20, due to hunting in the late 1800s.
Government protections and intense conservation strategies allowed them to bounce back, and now there are almost 17,000.
“They have sufficient diversity to cope with a wide range of conditions,” says Balfour.
Researchers don’t know exactly how many southern white rhinos existed a century ago, he says, but it’s clear that the animals came back from an incredibly low population count and that they now appear healthy.
Beyond their small collection of embryos, the BioRescue team hopes to expand the northern white rhino’s gene pool by drawing from an unconventional source — skin cells extracted from preserved tissue samples that are currently stored at zoos.
They aim to use stem cell techniques to reengineer those cells and develop them into sex cells, building off similar work in lab mice.
According to their plan, those lab-engineered sex cells would then be combined with natural sperm and eggs to make embryos, and from there, the embryos would be implanted into southern white rhino surrogate mothers.
Such stem cell reprogramming work has previously led to healthy offspring in lab mice, Hildebrandt says, but rhinos aren’t as well-studied and understood as mice, making this work significantly challenging.
A global effort
The northern white rhino revitalization venture has cost millions of dollars, supported by a range of public and private donors, including the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
Other partners on the effort include the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, the Czech Republic’s Safari Park, Kenya Wildlife Service, Ol Pejeta Conservancy, and also Katsuhiko Hayashi, a professor of genome biology at Osaka University in Japan who conducted the mouse stem cell research.
Building upon Hayashi’s stem cell techniques could ultimately bring the northern white rhino gene pool up to 12 animals — including eggs from eight females and the semen of four bulls, according to Stejskal.
An alternative approach to making more babies, like crossbreeding northern and southern white rhinos, would mean the resulting calves wouldn’t be genetically pure northern white rhinos, Hildebrandt notes.
The two subspecies look quite similar, but the northern version has subtle physical differences, including hairier ears and feet that are better suited to its swampy habitat.
The two animals also have different genes that may provide disease resiliency or other benefits, Hildebrandt says.
There are unknown potential differences in behavior and ecological impact when populating the area with southern white rhinos or cross-bred animals.
"The northern white rhino is on the brink of extinction really only due to human greed,” Stejskal says.
“We are in a situation where saving them is at our fingertips, so I think we have a responsibility to try.”
🩶🦏🩶
8 notes
·
View notes
What is IVF?
In recent decades, advancements in medical science have revolutionized the field of reproductive medicine, providing hope and opportunities for couples struggling with infertility. One such groundbreaking technique is In Vitro Fertilization (IVF). In this blog post, we will delve into the intricacies of IVF treatment, exploring what it is, how it works, and the potential it holds for those seeking to build a family.
What is IVF?
In Vitro Fertilization, commonly known as IVF, is a fertility treatment that involves the fertilization of an egg with sperm outside the human body. The process begins by extracting eggs from a woman's ovaries and fertilizing them with sperm in a laboratory dish. Once fertilization occurs, the resulting embryos are then implanted in the woman's uterus with the hope of establishing a successful pregnancy.
Understanding the IVF Process
Ovulation Induction: The first step in IVF involves stimulating the ovaries to produce multiple eggs. Fertility medications are administered to enhance egg production, monitored through ultrasound and blood tests.
Egg Retrieval: Once the eggs are mature, a minor surgical procedure known as egg retrieval is performed. A thin needle is inserted through the vaginal wall to collect the eggs from the ovaries.
Fertilization: The collected eggs are then combined with sperm in a controlled environment, allowing fertilization to occur. This step is closely monitored to ensure the formation of healthy embryos.
Embryo Culture: The fertilized eggs, now embryos, are cultured and monitored for several days. The healthcare team assesses their quality before selecting the most viable embryos for transfer.
Embryo Transfer: In the final step, one or more selected embryos are transferred into the woman's uterus. This is a relatively simple and painless procedure that aims to establish a successful pregnancy.
Success Rates and Considerations
IVF success rates vary depending on several factors, including the age of the woman, the cause of infertility, and the quality of the embryos. While some individuals achieve pregnancy in the first cycle, others may require multiple attempts. It's essential to approach IVF with realistic expectations and to consult with healthcare professionals to understand individual circumstances.
Challenges and Emotional Aspects
Embarking on an IVF journey can be emotionally challenging for couples. The process involves physical, emotional, and financial commitments, and individuals may experience a range of emotions, from hope and excitement to disappointment and stress. Support from loved ones and mental health professionals can play a crucial role in helping individuals navigate these challenges.
Conclusion
In Vitro Fertilization has emerged as a beacon of hope for many couples facing infertility challenges.
Schedule a Consultation with Dr. Sonal Lathi Today If you are considering IVF treatment, Dr. Sonal Lathi is the perfect choice for you. She is a leading expert in IVF, and she is committed to helping couples achieve their parenthood dreams.
2 notes
·
View notes