Every once in a while, you hear of an older woman who experiences stomach pains and discovers it's because of a long-dead fetus in her stomach. It happens when the fetus dies outside the uterus (usually occuring at least 14 weeks after conception) and is then covered by a calcified layer to protect the mother from infection. In many cases -- perhaps because the mother mysteriously loses her outward stomach and assumes with her next period the baby had been aborted or miscarried -- the mummified corpse remains undetected for decades after the fact, especially so if the woman doesn't try to have another child. The condition is called lithopedion.

It happened again recently to an 84 year-old Brazilian woman, USA Today reported. As is typical in such cases, another medical condition -- stomach pain -- uncovered the phenomenon. X-rays confirmed the 44 year-old "stone baby," -- "the face, the bones of the arms, of the legs, the ribs, and the spine," said the woman's gynecologist.

The woman was aware of her pregnancy when she was 40. It was painful, leading her to seek out a healer for help and remedy. After that, "her stomach didn't grow any more, the baby stopped moving and she thought it had been aborted," Porto Nacional hospital gynecologist Gesneria Saraiva Kratka told G1.

"It's supernatural, but she has not had any complications," Kratka said. "We are going to perform some new tests, scans to see more details and then we will speak with her relatives to see if they allow us to operate."

But that won't be the case. The woman has decided to keep the baby inside, according to USA Today.