Doctors perform emergency C-section on 41-week pregnant woman... only to discover her womb was empty all along Woman, 37, had visited midwives since the beginning of pregnancy Arrived at hospital with large belly, 'sharp pains' and proof of pre-natal treatment Doctors rushed her for caesarean when unable to detect baby's heartbeat Her husband, 23, said it is her second baby-less pregnancy By Matt Roper Doctors performed an emergency C-section on a 'heavily pregnant' woman who was 'in labor'- only to find that her womb was empty, it was reported on Tuesday. The 37-year-old woman had been accompanied by midwives from Cabo Frio, south-east Brazil, since the beginning of her pregnancy and arrived at the hospital claiming sharp pains. She reportedly arrived at the town's women's hospital with a large belly and proof of her pre-natal treatment, which showed she was 41 weeks' pregnant. Doctors performed a caesarean section on a 'heavily pregnant woman whose womb was empty (stock picture) When doctors were unable to detect the baby's heartbeat, they rushed her to into the operating room for a caesarean, according to the hospital's director, Rosalice Almeida. She told Brazil's Globo G1 website: "She'd done her whole pre-natal and was already overdue. Because the doctors couldn't pick up the heartbeat, they decided there wasn't time to request an ultrasound. They did the surgery then had the great shock of not finding any baby at all. The operation took place at this hospital in south-east Brazil The woman's husband, 23, told doctor's this was the second 'pregnancy' his wife had in a year. Last year she claimed she got pregnant only to go the hospital and lose the child, but she never showed him a death certificate. The case was registered as a phantom, or false pregnancy. Last December, in a different case, Layane Santos said she received pre-natal treatment during her entire pregnancy The rare condition occurs when a non-pregnant woman convinces herself she is pregnant, often even exhibiting all the classic symptoms of pregnancy. She was released from the hospital and referred to psychiatric care. This follows a case in December last year when another Brazilian woman accused a hospital of stealing her baby from her womb after she woke up for a C-section to be told her pregnancy had been "psychological." Layane Santos, 19, claimed she was in her 38th week of pregnancy when she was rushed to a maternity hospital in Sao Paulo, south east Brazil, with abdominal pain and blood loss. She had received pre-natal treatment during her entire pregnancy, with nurses recording the growing size of her baby and even measuring the foetal heart beats. According to Ultimo Segundo, Ms Santos, a kitchen assistant, even had an ultra-sound scans in the final week of her pregnancy, which showed she was carrying a baby girl who weighed 7lbs and measured 42cm. She and her husband Lourival Alves, 28, had already named their daughter Sofia, and had moved to a larger house and had spent pounds £2,000 on clothes and furniture for their first child, according to Brazil's Tribunal Hoje newspaper. Women suffering from phantom pregnancy will experience symptoms including nausea and weight gain The first thing a woman with a phantom pregnancy will probably do is visit her GP or antenatal clinic complaining of all the usual symptoms and minor discomforts of early pregnancy such as absence of periods; breast enlargement; nausea and vomiting; weight gain and abdominal distension. If a urine sample is tested at this stage it will rule out a pregnancy, but a woman suffering from a true pseudocyesis will continue to insist that she is pregnant, regardless of medical opinion. While the incidence of true pseudocyesis is extremely rare, the most 'at risk' group of women are those in their late thirties or early forties who desperately want a child and have been trying to conceive for many years. These women will normally be quite stable emotionally but will have a tendency to become very emotional over the whole question of pregnancy. Pseudocyesis can also occur in some women who have lost a pregnancy or a baby and, while it is probably an emotional reaction to their trauma, there is also evidence to suggest that a temporary hormonal imbalance may be a contributory factor. The treatment of a woman who is suffering from a true pseudocyesis requires very careful and sympathetic consideration, often with the help of a supportive partner or family network. Despite the existence of positive medical proof that she is not pregnant, the woman suffering from a phantom pregnancy may remain convinced of her pregnancy for some time, which is one of the reasons why follow-up counselling may have to be arranged for her. Very severe emotional disturbance may follow in a woman who finally comes to the realisation that she has been suffering from a false pregnancy. Nobody has yet come up with an explanation as to why a very small percentage of women actually exhibit all the classic symptoms of pregnancy such as weight gain, breast enlargement and abdominal distension when they are not pregnant at all. The fact that a woman actually looks pregnant makes the job of her GP even more difficult when he has to try to explain to her that all her urine samples are testing negative for pregnancy. Phantom pregnancy or pseudocyesis cannot just be dealt with from a medical or gynaecological perspective without taking due consideration of the severe underlying emotional distress and turmoil which has led to the diagnosis of such a condition in the first place.