Montreal woman Barbara Bienvenue, 37 has come to find out that she was not pregnant after admitting herself to hospital this past Wednesday. Until then the woman had told her boyfriend, Paul Servat, 35 that she was expecting quintuplets.
At the time an attending nurse told Barbara Bienvenue not only was it not her delivery date, but also that the woman was not pregnant with any children, let alone five.
Barbara Bienvenue is now undergoing a psychological evaluation and is believed to be suffering from pseudocyesis, or a phantom pregnancy, in which sufferers can exhibit all of the symptoms of a pregnancy but with no baby.
A friend of the boyfriend has alleged Bienvenue pulled the ‘same stunt’ with another man in 2010.
So abrupt was the shock of the no show pregnancy, Paul Servat released the following thoughts from his home where he had gone to the trouble with filling with five adorned cribs:
‘She let me choose the names,’
‘I lost everything, it was my whole life.’
Servat said Bienvenue’s baby story lasted 34 weeks, after she had surprised Servat in September with news that she was expecting.
They had only been dating for two months at the time.
‘We were so happy,’ Servat said.
‘Even my parents, they were so looking forward to having grandchildren.’
As weeks passed Bienvenue told Servat she was expecting twins, then triplets, then quadruplets before finally even telling there were five babies in her belly.
A Facebook page was made to document the pregnancy and, eventually, display the gifts that the couple received from their neighbors and local businesses.
Told a friend of the woman: ‘I used my personal and professional contacts to get her sponsorships. Others gave her all sorts of clothes or furniture,’
Yet not everyone was believing the news of the expected quintuplets, including that of Genevieve Laflamme who recently gave birth to triplets.
‘I gave her tips on how to handle it, where to get financial support, where to get sponsors for diapers,’ she told CTV.
She reportedly started to question Barbara’s version of events when she found unspecified holes in her story.
One of the clearest examples that things were not all quite there came just a week before Barbara’s alleged due date when she told Genevieve Laflamme that a new ultrasound showed that she was having quintuplets.
The fact that she was up and moving so close to her alleged due date should have also come as a sign of trouble.
A full term single pregnancy is 37 weeks, but women carrying multiple children regularly go into labor or doctor-mandated bed rest months before that.
It wasn’t until the expected due date that boyfriend Paul Servat found out the truth.
‘The doctors told me it was a phantom pregnancy,’ he said.
Bienvenue is now under psychiatric observation.
Servat said she was so convinced she was pregnant that her belly swelled, she began lactating and even had morning sickness.
Servat said he plans to give back all the presents they had received or donate them.
‘I’ll return all these things to people who sent them or give them (away),’ Servat said.
‘I’m a good person and I have nothing to do with these lies.’
It is unclear if the pair will continue to see each other going forward.
Then there was this reflection on the web that made me wonder too:
One can’t help but wonder why the woman’s boyfriend never asked or insisted for ultra sound images and how he came to be so bamboozled? One also wonders why the errant expectant mother played along so far with the scheme and how she duly never thought there would be no repercussions either….
When we had our child, my wife and I made sure she was actually pregnant. We did not one but two pregnancy test, setup appointments for a sonogram monthly, had pictures of the growing baby, and even had blood work done that identified if we were having a boy or a girl. I don’t know about Canada, but they should have access to the same medical technologies we have in the US. Doctors have access to 3D sonograms now and no dionogsis of pseudocyesis can ever make an image of a growing fetus.
I feel really sorry for the guy duped into believing he was going to be a father, but he was only with her for 2 months before she said she was pregnant. You would think he would be a little more suspicious or even curious enough to be with her on her doctor appointments and document such a momentous occassion. There’s seems to be a lot to the story that is missing. I hate to say but you have to be pretty dumb or just very impressionable to not know if your baby mama was actually a baby mama.
YZ – Not so fast calling other people ignorant! There are PLENTY of people in prisons who are mentally ill AND evil! Most evil people are mentally ill but society has to be protected from them…Are you going to be their advocate too? She is a sociopath and if she deserves any sympathy for that, it need to be behind bars…
Much of her claims of lactation and her water breaking are being touted by experts as deliberate and phony scheming on her part – intentional tricks to mislead innocent people.
People who knew her past say they were not aware she was pulling the same tricks so unfortunately did not step forward soon enough to warn others that this was not the first time she claimed she was pregnant (with twins before) OR that she also claimed to have had cancer…
“…friends and family allege she previously posed as cancer patient and an expectant mother of twins. Relatives told QMI they weren’t surprised to hear that her Wednesday due date came and went with no babies…”
“This isn’t the first time she’s done it,” said a male relative who didn’t want to be named for fear of reprisal. “But honestly, we never would have thought she was sick enough to do it again.”
The fact that you’re asking the last question shows that you don’t understand her condition. SHE believed she was pregnant, despite all evidemce to the contrary. She believed it so fervently that her mind was able to convince her body. It’s unfortunate, but I’m glad she’s getting the help she needs.
No she’s not “evil,” she’s mentally ill. She’s not a psycopath; as someone who suffers from bipolar disorder, I am tired of hillbillies labeling everyone who is mentally ill psychotic. It just shows YOUR ignorance.
That dude looks like Philip Seymour Hoffman.
This guy should be celebrating his amazing luck in not ending up with 5
kids and a psycho gf. Yahtzee!
She is a psychopath. I`m glad she is getting the mental treatment that she needs. Who knows what she would have been capable of. Some women do crazy things when they are dillusional.