The Curious Case of the Woman Who Was 'Pregnant' for 60 Years

A 92 year-old woman named Huang Yijun, from southern China debatably holds the record for the longest pregnancy ever… unbelievably for 60 years! Technically, she bore a baby known as a lithopedion or ‘Stone Baby.’

Her unusual pregnancy began in 1948 when the baby she was carrying dismally died while still in her womb. Yijun explained to the reporters that since she didn’t have the money for the procedure, she simply did nothing to remove the fetus and left it where it was.

Medically though, having a dead baby inside of you isn’t healthy, but the human body has a way of protecting itself. but the human body has a way of protecting itself. Since it's too large to be reabsorbed, as some aborted pregnancies are, Yijun’s body calcified the corpse, coating it with a hard layer of calcium (like what we see in our bones) to enclose and isolate the possible hazard from spreading infection. Quite literally, the baby inside turned to stone.

As a matter of fact, Yijun could have continued living not worrying about the lithopedion inside of her, but pain required her to have the baby remains extracted that brought an end to her 60 year pregnancy.