An expectant Brazilian woman has claimed that doctors stole her newborn girl from her womb, after waking up from a C-section and being told that her pregnancy was psychological.

Layane Santos, 19, said she was 38 weeks pregnant when she was taken to Santa Casa de Maua maternity hospital in Sao Paulo, Brazil. She suffered from abdominal pains and blood loss. After receiving anesthetic, she passed out and woke hours later to doctors telling her she had endured a “phantom pregnancy”.

An ultra-sound taken a week before her C-section revealed that she was indeed carrying a baby girl who weighed 7lbs.

“I can't believe a child who weighed 7lbs could just disappear. I think they stole the baby, or the baby died while she was being delivered and they didn't want to tell us what happened," Layane Santos said.