Her memories are intact. Charlotte Lefebvre still recalls the morning of January 30, 2018, as if it were yesterday. Hours of pain in her back, her arrival at the hospital emergency room accompanied by her mother, a suspected renal colic attack, a kidney ultrasound. And the diagnosis was made. The pain was actually contractions. The young woman, aged 28, was not only pregnant, she was giving birth. It was a violent shock. That evening, she gave birth to little Martin, who measured 49 centimeters and weighed three kilos.

Lefebvre had experienced what is known as "pregnancy denial," a psychological gestation disorder. "The definition is simple: It's a pregnancy that evolves without the woman's knowledge. She doesn't know she's pregnant. Now, if there is no psychological pregnancy, there can be no physical pregnancy," explained Israël Nisand, obstetric gynecologist, leading specialist in the subject and author, along with psychoanalyst Sophie Marinopoulos, of Elles Accouchent et Ne Sont Pas Enceintes: Le Déni de Grossesse ("They're Giving Birth and Aren't Pregnant: Denial of Pregnancy").

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