An Alabama woman's photo of her newborn baby born clutching her apparently ineffective IUD has gone viral.  It's extremely rare for such a pregnancy to occur.

Last month, Lucy Hellein posted to Instagram, saying she became pregnant despite having an Mirena IUD (she's also a Stars Wars fan):  "I was given a due date of May 4th.. even my OB said The Force is Strong with this one," she wrote.  "This boy was definitely a HUGE surprise.  Apparently I'm part of the one percent who end up with a viable Mirena pregnancy."  The gadget is visible in the little fellow's right hand.

Instagram/curlykittycrochet

Little Dexter Tyler was actually born a week before his due date.  But the photo by Mum Lucy showing him holding the Mirena IUD had already gone viral by May the Fourth, shared tens of thousands of times on social media.  Dexter wasn't actually born with the device in hand; the delivery team found the IUD in the placenta and the nurse put it in Dexter's hand.

"IUDs are 99.9 percent effective," said Planned Parenthood nurse practitioner Laura Ghasseminia.  "I mean it's next to impossible (to get pregnant).  You have a better chance of winning the lotto," she added.

Lucy Hellein

Planned Parenthood says women who get hormonal IUDs need to plan for back-up contraception to avoid an unplanned pregnancy.  This is because these IUDs prevent pregnancy immediately only if they are put in during the first seven days of the woman's period.  But if a woman gets one of these IUDs at any other time during her cycle, the protection doesn't start working until after seven days.  That creates a window that can result in an unplanned pregnancy.

Ghasseminia said Hellein could've already been pregnant, but because there is a delay in the time an egg is fertilized and travels to the uterine cavity, it can sometimes delay a positive pregnancy test.

"This woman is very lucky that when the placenta grew over the IUD it did not disrupt the blood flow to the placenta," which could have caused a miscarriage, Ghasseminia said.