A photo of a baby holding a Mirena IUD has the internet in awe.
The now-viral image that first appeared on Facebook shows one-week-old Dexter Benjamin Manuel Tyler holding his mother’s IUD in his hand, minutes after giving birth.
“My OB and the majority of the nurses I saw during the remainder of my pregnancy assumed [my IUD] had just fallen out,” Lucy Hellein tells Global News. “Shortly after he was born I heard my OB say, ‘I found your Mirena. It was behind the placenta.'”
The 34-year-old resident of Fort Mitchell, Ala., gave birth to her little boy on Apr. 27, via scheduled C-section.
Now dubbed the “Mirena baby” (the brand name of the IUD), Hellein says she first got the form of birth control during the summer of 2016.
“This was actually my third IUD, my first two worked great,” she says.
When she found out she was pregnant
Hellein first found out she was pregnant in December 2016.
“I was scared at first, since I had a Mirena,” she says. “From what I had read online, the majority of IUD pregnancies are either not viable or end in miscarriage. I assumed I was only a few weeks along — eight weeks at the most.”
But she decided to go ahead with the pregnancy regardless.
“I was overwhelmed with all kinds of emotions. I felt he was meant to be. His original due date was May 4 — Star Wars Day. Even my OB said, ‘The force is strong with this one.'”
During that first ultrasound, doctors told her she was about 18-weeks pregnant. They also told her the IUD was nowhere to be found and assumed it had fallen out.
“I was sure it was somewhere inside me still,” she says.
The famous pose
But it’s the photo of Dexter holding the IUD that got all the attention — so much so that many outlets and Internet users wondered if it was fake.
Although he wasn’t born holding the Mirena in his hand, Hellein says it was probably one of the nurses or his father’s idea to have him pose with it.
READ MORE: Women’s birth control linked to greater chance of depression: study
IUD births
The Mirena IUD is supposed to be 99 per cent effective and prevent pregnancies for up to five years, their site notes. You can also remove it at anytime if you do plan on getting pregnant.
But as no birth control is 100 per cent effective, pregnancies can occur even with the IUD in place, and there can be risks involved.
“One risk of becoming pregnant while using Mirena is called ectopic pregnancy,” the company notes. “This means that the pregnancy is not in the uterus. It may occur in the fallopian tubes. Signs of ectopic pregnancy may include unusual vaginal bleeding or abdominal pain.”
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Severe infection, miscarriage, premature delivery and even death are all risks associated with IUD pregnancies. According to Parents, if you do become pregnant with an IUD, call your doctor to have it removed.
There’s no telling where all this internet fame will land Dexter in the future, but just in case he doesn’t end up living off of the celebrity of his birth, his parents have set up a college fund on GoFundMe.
arti.patel@globalnews.ca