Baby girl born with head attached to her stomach

22-year-old Amlekha Bairva from India has given birth to a baby girl with a head attached to the stomach.

The twins were born last month in a tiny government-run hospital in their village but soon rushed to JK Lone Hospital, in Jaipur, in the northern state of Rajasthan, for further tests.

The baby girl, yet to be named, was born naturally and weighed four pounds and eight ounces, but the head of her twin is clearly formed and attached by the neck to the baby's stomach.

The baby is now under medical observation in the neonatal intensive care unit at the hospital and doctors are hoping to attempt surgery to detach the extra head as soon as her condition is stable.

Dr Chetan Sharma, Pediatric surgeon, at JK Lone Hospital, who will perform the surgery, is hopeful that an operation would be successful.

"This is a case of Hetropagus twinning or commonly known as Parasitic twinning. In such cases surgery is successful," he said.

"She's a healthy child with a normal heartbeat. She doesn't have any other internal or external complexities and that increases her chances of survival. We are confident that the surgery would be successful and the girl will lead a normal life with no future complexities in the future."

Amlekha and her husband Ramji Lal Bairva 29, who also have a 5-year-old son, were too poor to have an ultrasound during the pregnancy so the complications went unnoticed.

Ramji Lal, who is a daily labourer, said he was shocked to see his daughter.

"I didn't take my wife to the doctor during her pregnancy as I did not have money for any treatment," he said. "Also my first child was born normal so I never thought there could be any complications with my second child. When I saw my daughter, I could not believe my eyes, I couldn't pick her up."

The hospital has confirmed that they will not charge the family for any health or surgery costs.

Parasitic twins occur when a twin embryo begins developing in the utero but the pair doesn't fully separate, and one embryo maintains a dominant development at the expense of the other.