A Canadian woman almost successfully convinced her boyfriend, doctors, and the media that she was pregnant with quintuplets for 34 weeks. It wasn’t until Barbara Bienvenue, 37, arrived at the hospital to deliver the babies that doctors discovered she was actually never even pregnant to begin with.
Marie-Pier Gagnon, a reporter for Le Canada Français, a local French-language newspaper that covers Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, reported on Jan. 23 that the couple was expecting quadruplets. They would be named Alexander, Sebastian, Charles and Rosalie, and they would be born via Cesarean section on Feb. 22 at the CHU Sainte-Justine Hospital in Montreal.
According to CTV, a Canadian news station, after the shocking discovery, doctors reportedly pulled aside her boyfriend, and supposed father of the phantom quintuplets, to tell him that the entire pregnancy was a hoax. He was just as shocked as everybody else, sources say.
“I lost everything, it was my whole life,” Bienvenue’s boyfriend, Paul Servat, told the Toronto Sun, adding that Bienvenue told him she was expecting twins, then triplets, then quadruplets, then quintuplets.
He claims that she showed all the signs of pregnancy, from weight gain to morning sickness, and even lactation.
Doctors believe that Bienvenue experienced experienced a phantom pregnancy, or pseudocyesis, an extremely rare psychiatric condition in which a woman may experience all of the physical and emotional symptoms of a pregnancy, without actually being pregnant.
Sources say that she is currently receiving psychiatric treatment.
When news of Bienvenue’s multiple baby pregnancy first hit news, the couple gained attention and support through social media websites, like Facebook. Many donated money to the couple through Facebook to help support the growing family.
Since news of the phantom pregnancy broke on March 20, the Facebook page that originally solicited donations for the quintuplets has been taken down.
Local police spokesman Sgt. Luc Tougas said that his department is aware of the story, but has not yet received any formal complaints against the couple for fraud.
“The spouse, who was also jilted with this whole story, has been reimbursing some of the associations,” Tougas told ABCNews.com. “He was also very stunned. Right now, this woman is at the hospital undergoing psychiatric treatment. We suspect some mental issues.”
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