Brazilian baby 'born healthy with two heads... and both are suckling mother's breasts'

Mother only found about her baby's abnormalities minutes before birth

This is the second registered case of a two-headed baby being born in Brazil this year



A Brazilian woman who has given birth to a baby with two heads, admitted she had initially expected twins.



Maria de Nazare, gave birth by caesarean at a hospital in Anajas, in Brazil's northern Para state, with her newborn weighing 9.9lbs.

And in a tribute to the religious celebrations at Christmas, she has decided to call the pair Emanoel and Jesus.

The baby has two heads but all his organs are functioning healthily. The mother was said to have found about the abnormality only minutes before he was born

Following the birth of her baby, mother Maria, 25, admitted that she had been told she was set to welcome twins.

But following a number of tests, doctors have revealed that the baby has two brains and two spines but shares one heart, lungs, liver and pelvis.



The hospital's director, Claudionor Assis de Vasconcelos, told Brazil's O Povo newspaper that the woman decided to travel to the hospital because she was feeling strong abdominal pains.

The 25-year-old mother, who lives in a rural area of the state, had no ultra-sound scans during her pregnancy and only found out about the abnormality minutes before the baby was born at 1am on Monday morning.

He said: 'When doctors scanned her they realised that the baby had two heads and that a normal birth would be a great risk both for mother and baby. The caesarean took an hour because the baby was sitting down.

' Despite all the problems we have as a small interior hospital we managed to save both mother and baby, which was our aim. And for us it was a great surprise to find out that the child was in really good health.'

Santa Casa hospital is in Anajas, where the recently born baby is being cared for

Neila Dahas, director of the Santa Casa hospital said: 'If both their brains are functioning, how are we going to choose which head to remove? 'We are not considering the possibility of surgery. What we've got to think about at this moment is to maintain the children in good condition and see how they will develop.' Disbelief: The director of the hospital tells the assembled media of the birth of a two-headed baby

CONJOINED TWINS

The two-headed boy is, in reality, conjoined twins who share a single body. The condition is known as dicephalic parapagus - an extremely unusual form of conjoinment. Because they share the same body, it is not possible to separate dicephalic parapagus twins. The birth of such twins is extremely rare in south-west Asia and Africa.

However, there have been instances of dicephalic parapagus twins in the West.

In the U.S. Abigail and Brittany Hensel have become media celebrities, appearing on the Oprah Winfrey Show and featuring in television documentaries.

Mr Vasconcelos added that at no point did the mother, who has three other children, appear distraught that her son has two heads.

He said: 'On the contrary, the baby was received with much happiness by the family.



'The mother fed both mouths and the baby stayed with her in her room the whole time. Her desire was to take her baby straight home.'

The mother and baby were taken by air ambulance yesterday afternoon to a specialist hospital in the state capital, Belem, to carry out further tests. They are expected to be allowed home later this week.