“Something is wrong,” the midwife whispered.
When 29-year-old Grace Mbele went into labor in Pretoria, South Africa, doctors were preparing for what they believed would be a record-breaking birth: 10 babies at once.
The entire maternity ward was buzzing with anticipation. The cameras were waiting. The nurses were whispering about the Guinness World Record.
But no one could have predicted what they would witness that night: something that would completely shock even the most experienced doctors.
The Miracle Mother
Grace and her husband, Samuel, had been struggling to have children for years. After five failed fertility treatments, their sixth attempt at IVF was finally successful, but the ultrasounds continued to surprise everyone.
First there were twins.
Then triplets.
Then seven.
By the seventh month, an ultrasound showed ten distinct heartbeats.
“It was like a dream,” Grace later said. “We didn’t question it. We just thanked God.” The hospital set up a special delivery room. Ten incubators were lined up. A team of twelve doctors and thirty nurses were assigned to the delivery.
The longest night
Fact Check: Did the woman who gave birth to 10 babies break the Guinness World Record? | Offbeat News – India TV
On the night of June 8, 2025, Grace went into labor.
It lasted nine hours.
The first cry was heard at 9:24 p.m.: a healthy baby girl.
Then, one after the other, the births continued: boys and girls, small but breathing.
By the time the ninth baby arrived, everyone in the room was exhausted but euphoric. The nurses were crying. One of them shouted, “He did it! Ten miracles!”
But as the tenth delivery began, the monitors beeped erratically.
“Doc, your heartbeat isn’t normal!”
Grace screamed in pain, and the atmosphere immediately went from celebration to chaos.
The Thing That Wouldn’t Cry
When the tenth “baby” was born, silence filled the room.
No crying. No movement. No signs of life.
At first, the nurses thought it was a stillbirth. But when the doctor gently lifted her up, everything went cold.
Because what they saw was not a baby.
Wrapped in a translucent membrane was something that looked almost human: small limbs, but the skin was hard, gray, and cold to the touch. It was shaped like a head, but without facial features. The body seemed to be joined together, with a strange, web-like tissue connecting it to a thin cord still attached to Grace.
One nurse immediately lost consciousness. Another dropped her equipment.
Dr. Luyanda, the head obstetrician, whispered:
“This… This is not a fetus. This is something else.”
Fear in the room
A few minutes later, security personnel were clearing the room. The tenth object was carefully placed inside a sterile container. Grace was sedated and moved to intensive care.
Rumors spread like wildfire through the hospital corridors:
“A deformed twin?”
“A medical anomaly?”
“Something supernatural?”
Authorities tried to keep the situation under wraps, but in the early hours of the morning, someone posted a blurry photo online. It showed a nurse holding a small bundle wrapped in surgical cloth, which looked like a faint metallic sheen on the skin.
The caption read: “The tenth baby… She’s not a baby at all.”
The internet exploded.
The official investigation
Three days later, the Department of Health (DOH) held a press conference.
Dr. Luyanda stood before flashing cameras and trembling reporters. Her voice was firm, but her eyes were filled with surprise.
“We can confirm that Ms. Grace Mbele has given birth to nine healthy babies,” she began.
“However, the tenth sample is being tested. It does not match the biological markers of a human baby.”
That phrase changed everything.
The “tenth baby” was immediately transferred to the National Biomedical Research Center in Johannesburg. Scientists kept her under observation for 24 hours.
What they found inside
At first glance, the object looked like a malformed fetus about 20 weeks old, but images revealed something extraordinary: tiny metal structures embedded beneath its surface, forming a symmetrical pattern.
“Like a circuit,” said one researcher.
When scanned with an MRI, it emits weak electromagnetic signals, similar to those of a microchip. However, it is made up of organic tissue.
No one can explain it.
Forensic biologist Dr. Naomi Lefebvre said:
“This is unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. It’s not synthetic. It’s not completely biological. It’s… the same.”
The doctor called her “Subject 10.”
Grace’s Strange Dream
Meanwhile, Grace had been unconscious for nearly 36 hours after giving birth. When she woke up, her first question was, “Where’s the silence?”
Her husband thought she was referring to the younger baby. But he shook his head.
“No,” she whispered. “The one who hasn’t cried yet. I felt him looking at me inside my belly. He’s not like the others.”
Doctors are calling it postpartum trauma. But when she described her last ultrasound, they felt a shiver.
Grace remembers seeing something the technician had missed: a flash of movement, separate from the other babies. “There was no heartbeat,” she said. “But it moved.”
Global sensitivity