| Paul Sevat in empty nursery with 5 cribs.- courtesy: Camile Laurin-Desjardins/Le Journal De Montral/Agence QMI |
A Canadian woman is the latest to experience a very public case of phantom pregnancy or pseudocyesis, a very rare disorder in which a woman experiences all the symptoms of pregnancy, but is not pregnant.
Barbara Bienvenue told her boyfriend and town that she was expecting quintuplets and even collected cribs and loads of gear for the babies right up to she was supposed to be 37 weeks pregnant and due to deliver the babies.
That is when doctors told her boyfriend Paul Servat that Bienvenue was not pregnant and never once. She is currently undergoing psychiatric evaluation as Servant works to repay some of the associations and groups that donated for the babies.
“I lost everything, it was my whole life,” Servat told the Toronto Sun adding that Bienvenue told him she was expecting twins, then triplets, then quadruplets, then quintuplets. He said her belly grew, and she experienced morning sickness and lactation.
Very unfortunate. Watch an ABC News video about the story: