Doctors were baffled when they admitted a woman to the labor room expecting that she would be welcoming quintuplets but found nothing inside. Continue reading to find out what happened.
It is joyful to be in love, especially when the other party feels the same. When this is the case, lovers grow more connected over time until eventually they get married and welcome children, starting a family.
When two people who love each other deeply start expecting a child, they get happy and hopeful as they look forward to the child’s arrival. That is why one man was devastated when the doctors revealed the truth about his girlfriend’s pregnancy.
Paul Servat met his former girlfriend Barbara Bienvenue on an online dating site, and they hit it off immediately.
Months later, the woman revealed that she was pregnant, and in his mid-30s, Servat did not mind becoming a father with the woman he was in love with, even if it had only been for months.
At first, she was expecting twins, but the numbers steadily increased until they reached quintuplets as time passed.
When Servat and Bienvenue told a friend of theirs, who chose to create a Facebook page for them out of the goodness of her heart, it got the pair many gifts and well wishes from the community.
Geneviève Laflamme, who once welcomed twins in the past, also went ahead to get closer to the future mother. As time passed, she would give her tips on what to expect and where to get financial support.
More gifts rolled in, and Servat was a happy man. He was starting his own family, and he couldn’t wait to meet his kids — all five of them. He said: “Even my parents, they were so looking forward to having grandchildren.”
Laflamme was more discerning, and she started to suspect something was off after she noticed that some things did not add up. For instance, a week before the due date, Bienvenue revealed that it was actually going to be quintuplets she would deliver.
Laflamme found that hard to believe, but mothers on Facebook did not, so they continued to shower the couple with gifts and the likes.
THE TRUTH
In March 2014, Bienvenue and her boyfriend made their way to the hospital to deliver their children. However, after running a blood test, a nurse called Servat to a corner and broke the news to him.
It turned out his lover had not been pregnant with quintuplets; she had never been pregnant at all and had either been pretending or imagining it.
At that moment, Servat’s world crumbled before his eyes because he had been dreaming of becoming a father and had even gotten five colorful cribs for the babies.
Servat said as tears rolled down his face, “I lost everything; it was my whole life.” According to her family: “He was crying on the phone. He was devastated; he didn’t understand.”
It was such a shocking revelation that the man even refused to believe it until he was told it had been a phantom pregnancy because, in truth, Bienvenue was showing physical signs of carrying a child.
Her stomach was bloated, she started lactating, and she even had to deal with morning sickness while carrying her phantom babies.
Doctors also reassured him that things like that did happen, which is why they chose to keep her in the hospital for mental evaluation while a broken Servat returned home alone to deal with the mess she had created.
As far as the gifts they received were concerned, he chose to return them to the donors and send the rest to charity.
IT WASN’T HER FIRST RODEO
While it was clear she was suffering from the delusion of pregnancy in this case, reports have claimed that Bienvenue had pulled the same stunt with another man from her past, and her family knew about it.
They could have warned Servat if they knew him, but apparently, Bienvenue cut them off, so they wouldn’t know. They said:
“But honestly, we never would have thought she was sick enough to do it again.”
Phantom pregnancies are of two types: One is pseudocyesis, which has the victim display physical pregnancy signs, like missed periods and protrusion of the abdomen, but no actual fetus.
While the other condition is known as a delusional pregnancy, in which a victim has a conviction that she is pregnant but is not.
Bienvenue had to be put through a mental evaluation to determine the root of the problem. However, no matter the findings, nothing will bring back Servat’s “babies.”
At the same time, nothing will fix the embarrassment of having to send the gifts back or shore up the breach of trust between him and the friend who had been kind enough to help them launch a Facebook campaign for the babies’ safe delivery. A post on the couple’s Facebook page read:
“Not only has he lost someone he had fallen in love with, but also four babies who had become his ‘joie de vivre.”
Losing a child is never easy, and Servat practically lost five of his, which was devastating. Hopefully, he has healed from the emotional damage it cost him.
