The baby, weighing just over 6lb, was delivered “kicking and screaming” by emergency Caesarean section after an ultrasound scan revealed that her mother’s womb was empty.

Cwayita Ncise, 20, from the Cape Flats near Cape Town, had gone through what she thought was a routine pregnancy until doctors at her local clinic became concerned about her blood pressure when she went for her 39-week check. They sent her to Somerset Hospital in Cape Town for an ultrasound scan.

Staff there were astonished when they could find no trace of the fully grown foetus in her womb and sent Ms Ncise to the internationally renowned Groote Schuur hospital for emergency surgery.

The six-strong team of specialists knew that the foetus was somewhere in her abdomen, but until they opened her up, they had no idea where. “I only found out that the baby was attached to the liver when I opened the abdomen,” Bruce Howard, who led the operation, said. “It was a very frightening sight.” He called for help from Professor Jake Krige, a leading liver surgeon. “I knew that if the placenta became detached during the operation we might have to remove part of the liver to save the mother’s life,” Dr Howard said.

“I found an area behind the liver where I could see the amniotic sac. I cut it open, and delivered the baby, feet first. I then tied off the umbilical chord with two stitches, handed the baby over to a specialist paediatrician, and decided to leave the placenta where it was. It was simply too dangerous to attempt to remove it. Eventually, it will be absorbed by the mother’s body.”

Dr Howard said that the baby was fortunate that her mother had not had an earlier ultrasound scan: doctors would have operated immediately to remove the foetus because they would have feared for the mother’s life.

Nhlahla was initially placed on a ventilator, but is now breast-feeding and both the mother and daughter are said to be doing fine.

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