Vitals - nine-babies

Apr

2012

8:25am, EDT

Claims of woman pregnant with 9 babies debunked

By msnbc.com staff

Reports that a Mexican woman is pregnant with nine babies are not true, according to El Diario de Coahuila, the local newspaper in the town were the woman lives.

Mexican television stations aired interviews with Karla Vanessa Perez of the northeastern state of Coahuila, which borders Texas, where she claimed fertility treatments led to this multiple pregnancy and also that she already had triplets.

The story was widely reported by various media outlets, including msnbc.com.

But when reporters from the Mexican newspaper investigated, they learned she’s actually not pregnant at all. Her mother, Francisca Castañeda, told El Diario de Coahuila that Perez has three children, ages 15, 12 and 4 and after the last was born, had an operation to prevent her from getting pregnant again.

David Vila, a reporter with Telemundo, also contacted the office of Mexico’s Secretary of Health, which confirmed she wasn't pregnant. The office had initially reached out to her to offer to help.

José Salvador Gallegos Mata, a member of the Mexican Society of Gynecology and Urology told the newspaper that someone who would make such false claims “needs to urgently say ‘I’m here. Please look at me, I exist.'” He added, “That woman needs urgent psychological treatment.”