Woman’s Phantom Pregnancy Shocks Her Boyfriend But Not Her Family – She Used To Fake Illness In The Past
(Clemens Bilan/Getty Images)
A man who thought his girlfriend was pregnant and he was going to be a first-time father was stunned when they got to the hospital.
According to the Toronto Sun, Paul Servat, 35, and Barbara Bienvenue, 37, went to the hospital in Montreal.
“She let me choose the names,” Servat told the QMI Agency, a news company, as he stood among donated gifts. “I lost everything, it was my whole life.”
Bienvenue surprised Servat with the news that she was expecting months before the due date. Later, she said that she was going to have twins, then triplets, then quadruplets. After that, she said she’s expecting five babies.
“We were so happy,” Servat said. “Even my parents, they were so looking forward to having grandchildren.”
Servat took Bienvenue to the hospital and staff told him there was no record of her pregnancy before a nurse took him aside and showed him the blood test results.
“She told me she was not pregnant,” he said, referring to what the nurse told him.
“The doctors told me it was a phantom pregnancy,” said Servat.
He said that Bienvenue was so convinced she was pregnant that her belly got bigger and even had morning sickness.
The two met online last summer, and they amassed a significant amount of pregnancy-related gifts.
“I’ll return all these things to people who sent them or give them (away),” Servat said.
“I’m a good person and I have nothing to do with these lies.”
According to QMI Agency, Bienvenue’s family and close friends weren’t surprised with the strange incident.
Bienvenue had faked leukemia and other illnesses in the past.
“She cut ties with us in recent months,” said the relative. “She didn’t want us to know about her game.”
A phantom pregnancy, or false pregnancy, is the belief “that you are expecting a baby when you are not really carrying a child,” WebMD says.
“People with pseudocyesis have many, if not all, symptoms of pregnancy — with the exception of an actual fetus. Some men experience a related phenomenon known as couvade, or sympathetic pregnancy. They will develop many of the same symptoms as their pregnant partners, including weight gain, nausea, and backache,” it says, while adding that pseudocyesis.