An Indian mother is devastated after losing her ‘Mermaid‘ baby minutes after she gave natural birth to her.

Disksha Kamble, 25 gave birth to world’s seventh Sirenomelia baby on Monday morning at a government-run hospital in Beed in Maharashtra in western India.

Sirenomelia is a rare congenital developmental disorder characterised by anomalies of lower spine and lower limbs. Affected infants are born with partial or complete fusion of the legs.

The woman had undergone sonography only once in the eight month of gestation and was oblivious of the baby’s anomaly, reports the Story Trender.

She arrived with her husband Nanoba Kamble, 32, at Swami Ramanand Teerth Rural Government Hospital after labour pains on early Monday morning and by 9 am gave birth to the child.

The baby’s legs were fused together and its gender could not be known.

The infant weighed 1.8 kg.

Dr Sanjay Bansode, gynaecologist at hospital said he and his team of medical students and staff nurses were shocked to see the baby coming out with ‘fins’.

Dr Bansode said: ‘It is an extremely rare condition. The mother had arrived at 7 am in the morning and by 9 am she had delivered the child through natural birth.

‘We were anticipating a head or legs but a strange ‘fin-like’ mass came out.

‘Everyone of us were shocked to see the baby. My students had never seen something like this before.

‘The baby not only had legs fused together and missing genitals but also had other internal anomalies like renal and lungs deformity.

‘The baby could not survive more than 15 minutes.

‘The mother had only gone once for the sonography but the report doesn’t mention mermaid child so we were also unaware of the baby’s condition.’

Nanoba Kamble, who works as a daily wage labour at sugarcane factory said the family had already lost their first child to a similar anomaly three years ago but after their second child, a daughter was born healthy they had no apprehensions during the third pregnancy.

Nanoba said: ‘My wife and I are shattered with the loss of our child. We have never seen or known a baby like this.

‘I saw the child after delivery and was shocked to see it had no legs. It was very tiny and the legs were fused.

‘We are daily wage labours and somehow make our ends meet. After we lost our first child within a day of her birth we went for ultrasounds during our second pregnancy and only went for it once this time.

‘We were told the baby had some issues but it was too late and we were prepared for everything. But we are devastated and cannot believe how and why our baby was born like a ‘fish’.’

Dr Bansode said while Mermaid syndrome is extremely rare and there is no certain cause known for this.