Delivery day came and went for Barbara Bienvenue, but rather than quintuplets, the woman and her boyfriend, Paul Servat, were told the 37-year-old wasn't - nor had she ever been - pregnant.
According to the Toronto Sun, Bienvenue was so convinced she was pregnant that her belly swelled, she began lactating and she even had morning sickness.
Dr. Haim Abenhaim, an obstetrician and gynecologist at Montreal's Jewish General Hospital, told CTV that Servat's girlfriend may have had pseudocyesis. The condition, also known as "phantom pregnancy," shows the physical signs of pregnancy, but there is no actual pregnancy.
"We were so happy," Servat said. "Even my parents, they were so looking forward to having grandchildren. I lost my whole life."
At the hospital, a nurse took Servat aside to break the news to him that there was no record of pregnancy, showing him the blood tests to prove it.
"She told me she was not pregnant," he said.
Geneviève Laflamme, a mother of triplets who befriended the couple, told CTV News that parts of the woman's story didn't add up. Over the course of 34 weeks, Bienvenue said she was having twins, then triplets, then quadruplets, and then finally quintuplets.
"She let me choose the names," a devastated Servat said.
The couple, who met online last summer, now has to return baby gifts they received after a friend of theirs created a Facebook page to help them out.
"I'll return all of these things to people who sent them or give them (away)," Servat said.
Now Servat, faced with five empty cribs in his Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu neighborhood home, wonders how he could have missed the signs.
"I'm a good person and I have nothing to do with these lies," he said adamantly.
