History Main / BornFromADeadWoman

Accounts of this phenomenon go back centuries, where they were referred to as "coffin births" though only more recent cases are documented well enough to be considered real. Many historical cases are thought to be the result of the woman being BuriedAlive back when it was more difficult to determine whether someone was really dead. The official term is post-mortem fetal extrusion.

A woman gives birth to a live baby, minutes, hours or even days after her own death. Depending on the child they may be seen as a miracle, BornUnlucky, cursed, or anywhere in between.

A woman gives birth to a live baby, minutes, hours or even days after her own death. Depending on the child they may be seen as a miracle, BornUnlucky, cursed or anywhere in between.

Also counts for cases where the mother was undead at the time of the birth, which can result in an UndeadChild. Cases where the mother is brain dead but kept alive by life support can also count.

Despite the fantastic sounding concept, [[RealityIsUnrealistic this has been known to happen in real life]]. Studies have shown that if the amniotic sac is intact a fetus can survive the death of the mother for a short period of time.

Compare DeathByChildbirth, which usually occurs after the delivery. A TraumaticCSection may or may not be fatal to the mother, but prior to modern medicine it was usually performed when the mother had already died in an attempt to save the baby. A subtrope of MissingMom, as well as BirthDeathJuxtaposition. May occur as a result of ImperiledInPregnancy.

* The Greek god Asclepius is said to have been delivered by caesarean section after his mother Coronis was killed on Mt. Olympus.
* Similarly Dionysus's human mother Semele died after [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm Hera tricked her into making Zeus reveal his true form]], which burned her down to ash. But because the fetus was immortal Zeus took it and [[MrSeahorse sewed it into his thigh to bring it to term]].

* The Japanese story of the child-raising ghost: a dead woman gives birth in her coffin and her ghost makes nightly visits to a store near the graveyard to buy candy, until the curious storekeeper follows her and unburies her healthy child.

* Macduff, from Shakespeare's ''{{Theatre/Macbeth}}'', revealed that he was not literally born, but removed from his dead mother, completing the ProphecyTwist of NoManOfWomanBorn.

* Played for CosmicHorror in ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'': The Orphan of Kos is a HumanoidAbomination born from the remains of the EldritchAbomination named Kos (or some say, "Kosm") after she beached herself ashore near the Fishing Hamlet. It is not clear whether a being like Kos can ''really'' be dead, or whether the Orphan was ever physically born, since you only encounter both of them in the DreamLand... but it is also quite clear that such categories hardly apply to the Great Ones.
* ''VideoGame/DeathStranding'': Zig-zagged. The [[PoweredByAForsakenChild Bridge Babies]] (or [=BBs=]) are fetuses removed in the seventh month of pregnancy from their brain-dead parent (called "stillmothers") to be put in [[UterineReplicator pods]] that stunt their growth, so that they can be used as [[OurGhostsAreDifferent [=BT=]]] detectors. The stillmother is still kept alive with the use of machinery in the medical ward of one of the Knot Cities, but they're pretty much beyond saving by now and there's no chance that they will ever wake up. The [=BB=] needs to be synced with its stillmother from time to time, to keep up the illusion that it's still actually inside the womb, otherwise, it will malfunction. Taking the [=BB=] out of its pod is illegal and there's a high chance that it will result in its death. However, there are at least two known examples of a [=BB=] surviving the procedure and one of it growing into a healthy adult.
* ''VideoGame/DragaliaLost'': Pinon was born in such a way. Her parents die in a mission while she was in her mother, and Gabriel senses her within and forms a sigil with her to ensure her birth. After that, Gabriel raised the newly born apostle herself.

* Pope Gregory XIV was delivered by post mortem hysterectomy.

* ''Series/{{CSINY}}'': In "The Box," an unwed pregnant woman promises her baby to a couple, then changes her mind in her last month. She gets pushed down the stairs during a fight in their home. The husband realizes she's dead, but cuts the baby out of her and hides her body.

* The gruesome phenomenon of coffin birth--when a dead pregnant body decomposes, the tissues in the vagina and cervix putrefy and weaken, and the buildup of gases in the abdomen eventually expels the content of the uterus out. This is extremely rare now since most bodies are embalmed and don't decompose normally, but it's exactly what happened to the 8 months pregnant [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Laci_Peterson Laci Peterson]] when she was dumped into the San Francisco Bay, explaining why her body and that of her unborn son Connor were found separately and why Connor's body was considerably less decomposed since he had been protected from the elements by being in Laci's body (leading to initial speculation that he may have been born alive until later tests proved this wasn't the case).

* The gruesome phenomenon of coffin birth--when a dead pregnant body decomposes, the tissues in the vagina and cervix putrefy and weaken, and the buildup of gases in the abdomen eventually expels the content of the uterus out. This is extremely rare now since most bodies are embalmed and don't decompose normally, but it's exactly what happened to the 8 months pregnant [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Laci_Peterson Laci Peterson]] when she was dumped into the San Francisco Bay, explaining why her body and that of her unborn son Connor were found separately and why Connor's body was considerably less decomposed since he had been protected from the elements by beingin Laci's body (leading to initial speculation that he may have been born alive until later tests proved this wasn't the case).

* The gruesome phenomenon of coffin birth--when a dead pregnant body decomposes, the tissues in the vagina and cervix putrefy and weaken, and the buildup of gases in the abdomen eventually expels the content of the uterus out. This is extremely rare now since most bodies are embalmed and don't decompose normally, but it's exactly what happened to the 8 months pregnant [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Laci_Peterson Laci Peterson]] when she was dumped into the San Francisco Bay, explaining why her body and that of her unborn son Connor were found separately and why Connor's body was considerably less decomposed (leading to initial speculation that he may have been born alive until later tests proved this wasn't the case).

* The gruesome phenomenon of coffin birth--when a dead pregnant body decomposes, the tissues in the vagina and cervix putrefy and weaken, and the buildup of gases in the abdomen eventually expels the content of the uterus out. This is extremely rare now since most bodies are embalmed and don't decompose normally, but it's exactly what happened to the 8 months pregnant [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Laci_Peterson Laci Peterson]] when she was dumped into the San Francisco Bay, explaining why her body and that of her unborn son Connor were found separately and why Connor's body was considerably less decomposed.

* The first segment of the 2018 anthology melodrama ''Film/LifeItself'' sees Abby struck by a bus and killed while pregnant; her unborn daughter Dylan survives and is subsequently [[RaisedByGrandparents raised by her grandfather]] in the second segment, as her father suffered a breakdown and was institutionalized after Abby's death.

* The first segment of the 2018 anthology melodrama ''Life Itself'' sees Abby struck by a bus and killed while pregnant; her unborn daughter Dylan survives and is subsequently [[RaisedByGrandparents raised by her grandfather]] in the second segment, as her father suffered a breakdown and was institutionalized after Abby's death.

* At the very beginning of ''[[{{Literature/TheOldKingdom}} Sabriel]]'' the Abhorsen Terciel arrives at a camp and finds a group of travelers that tried to help his pregnant wife after she went into labor, but both she and her child died. Terciel then goes into Death and is able to retrieve the baby's soul and bring her back to life, but her mother was already too far gone.

* The gruesome phenomenon of coffin birth--when a dead pregnant body decomposes, the tissues in the vagina and cervix putrefy and weaken, and the buildup of gases in the abdomen eventually expels the content of the uterus out. This is extremely rare now since most bodies are embalmed and don't decompose normally, but it's exactly what happened to the 8 months pregnant [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Laci_Peterson Laci Peterson]] when she was dumped into the San Francisco Bay, explaining why her body and that of her unborn son Connor were found separately.

* In ''LightNovel/AvestaOfBlackAndWhite'', the novel opens with a pregnant woman committing suicide by jumping off a cliff because she knows the child she is carrying will grow into an Archdemon. Unfortunately it doesn't work due to the child possessing CompleteImmortality, and the unborn child psychically thanks her for being her first murder seconds before impact. The child later crawls out of her lifeless body and becomes the Archdemon Frederica.