Autopsy worker shares emotional reality of what happens when a mother dies while pregnant
Mia Williams
Featured Image Credit: Getty stock images
An autopsy tech has explained what happens to a baby when their mother dies whilst pregnant.
The process our bodies might go through when we pass on will always be an innate curiosity - and that's where autopsy technicians like G Dubya come in.
He regularly takes to TikTok to answer people's questions about his work, and a follower of his asked him what happens if a deceased pregnant woman comes in to be operated on.
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According to the tech, he has sadly had to perform an autopsies on four pregnant women throughout his career - and how they are buried is usually down to the decision of the woman's family or the funeral home.
In the clip from 2021, he continued: "When I autopsy a pregnant lady, I've autopsied four, we remove the baby, we collect DNA, we get a little blood swatch, and then when the autopsy is done on mom, put mom back in the bag and then we put the baby in mom's arms.
"It's up to the funeral home and the family if, what the family wants.
"If the family wants the baby back in the belly, or if they want the baby embalmed in the casket with mom.
"But it's up to the funeral home. I just put it in the arms."
In another video on the same topic last year, he said that they also make a 'DNA card' in case anybody in the future 'wanted to know who Daddy was'.
And viewers on G Dubya's TikTok were quick to share their thoughts on the process.
One person said: "That's the most morbid but sweet thing I've heard."
A second commented: "Oh my gosh. That is heartbreaking & heartwarming all in one."
A third thanked him for 'looking after them,' while a fourth also thanked him for 'giving a mother the dignity and respect she deserves for her and her child'.
And some shared personal experiences of loved ones who'd died while pregnant and how they were buried with their unborn child.
Another content creator/mortician, Kati, further added on her YouTube channel that there's no 'one set protocol' when it comes to preparing pregnant women for burial.
Sometimes, she says, the woman may not require an autopsy and is sent to the funeral home pregnant, or if an autopsy has occurred, then mum and baby could be 'embalmed separately' then 'placed in the mom's arms and buried that way', or the baby could be 'put back' in the abdomen - so it's entirely situational.