Pregnancy Denial-- a real psychological disorder?

I know that under normal conditions, you can't menstruate when you're pregnant. However, under normal conditions you can't lactate when you're not pregnant, either, and there are documented cases of women with "hysterical pregnancies" lactating, having abdominal swelling and other signs of pregnancy. So who knows what physical symptoms the body can have when the mind is convinced! Bizarre but interesting stuff!

My grandmother had a hysterical pregnancy. Stomach got big and everything.

It is possible to lactate while pregnant - lots of women continue to nurse children while they're pregnant.

Regarding the individual in the OP, there seems to be a lot of psych stuff going on behind the scenes. I have, however, seen cases of women who have very irregular periods to begin with, are a little overweight, and whose bodies can hide a pregnancy for a very long time. If they've had trouble with infertility in the past such as happens with PCOS, the thought that they could be pregnant is often far from their minds. Missed periods and the like are par for their course.

While I don't believe every single story that mom 'didn't know' she was pregnant, I don't automatically write them off, either.

From what I understand you will continue to lactate as long as you have that stimulation. Not in all cases, but I guess in general.
Could be wrong though, I am no OB nurse.

I'm sorry, when I brought up lactation what I meant was that women with hysterical pregnancies can begin to lactate/leak (symptom of pregnancy that occurs in the case of hysterical pregnancy can occur even without a fetus).I was just using it as an example of how the mind can make the body do unusual things sometimes!

This is so strange. On one hand, you know this lady cannot be right in the head but where do we draw the line between having a mental disorder that excuses this sort of thing and making her accountable for her actions. She knew she was pregnant (it said in the article). She did this 3 times! I can understand that denial can be very strong but I cant understand murdering 3 helpless newborns. Hasn't she ever heard of the pill? She knew enough to conceal her pregnancy from her family--even her husband. I just dont get it.

The "man" who gave birth was on Oprah and his wife began to lactate adn breastfed their first baby.

I've actually seen this happen before, but mostly with teens and some early 20's. They've convinced themselves that they are not pregnant and won't have any symptoms. They won't even show, even those who are quite thin to begin with. However, later on in the pregnancy (I'm talking 36 weeks) for some reason or another they admit to themselves that they are pregnant, and over the course of a few hours, they'll start to have symptoms, and then start showing for that stage in pregnancy. Quite bizarre.

I asked a doctor once if she had any patients who didn't know they were pregnant. She said only a few, mostly teens who were in denial.

One, however, was a woman who was told she could never have kids. She was obese and had lots of stomach issues. She was 37 weeks when she found out, and two days later she delivered.

She said many women have "a bun in the oven. She had "a bun in the microwave."