Abdominal pregnancy

Abdominal pregnancy
A fetus being removed from the abdomen after childbirth in abdominal pregnancy
Specialty	Obstetrics

An abdominal pregnancy is a rare type of ectopic pregnancy where the embryo or fetus is growing and developing outside the uterus, in the abdomen, and not in a fallopian tube (usual location), an ovary, or the broad ligament.^[1][2][3]

Because tubal, ovarian and broad ligament pregnancies are as difficult to diagnose and treat as abdominal pregnancies, their exclusion from the most common definition of abdominal pregnancy has been debated.^[4]

Others—in the minority—are of the view that abdominal pregnancy should be defined by a placenta implanted into the peritoneum.^[5]