Matheus Gabriel was born despite the copper IUD his mother had been using for two years. One of the most effective contraceptive methods: its effectiveness rate is over 99 %.
The small “T”-shaped device is placed inside the uterus and can prevent pregnancies for several years. In Queidy’s case, doctors decided not to remove it during the pregnancy because of the risk that intervening could pose, so Matheus continued developing with the device still in place.
The journey wasn’t entirely free of scares. The mother had episodes of bleeding and placental abruption during the pregnancy, but Matheus was ultimately born healthy at Hospital Sagrado Coração de Jesus, in Nerópolis, Goiás.
It was then that the obstetrician Natália Rodrigues decided to immortalize the irony of the story.
Although the baby didn’t come out of the womb holding the IUD, the doctors placed the device in his tiny hand and filmed the scene as if Matheus were showing off the contraceptive he had managed to “beat”. “Holding my trophy of victory: the IUD that couldn’t beat me!”, the doctor wrote while sharing the images.
The family also decided to take it in stride. His father joked that “the factory is already closed”, referring to his plan to get a vasectomy after such a surprise.