pseudocyesis

Unsurprisingly, Seeman says, pseudocyesis occurs more often in cultures where married women are expected to produce children.

Her defense team suggested that she suffered from a rare condition called pseudocyesis — when a woman believes she is pregnant and will even develop physical symptoms.

Her lawyers had also argued that she was suffering from pseudocyesis, which causes a woman to falsely believe she is pregnant and exhibit outward signs of pregnancy.

In more extreme cases, they can even experience pseudocyesis, in which their stomach swells throughout their partner’s pregnancy, only to begin retracting after the birth.

Duchardt’s second strategy was to admit that although Montgomery was the killer, she was not guilty by reason of insanity – because, he believed, she had been suffering from a phantom pregnancy, or pseudocyesis.