I was terrified when I saw my baby – my first reaction was I must’ve done something wrong in my pregnancy

A MUM said she was terrified for the wellbeing of her baby when she counted two extra fingers.

Talliya Burnside, 25, said ultrasounds hadn't picked up the bizarre birth defect on her firstborn Dessiah's hands.

The now mum-of-four said she got the shock of her life when the tot was born.

“My first reaction was that I must’ve done something wrong in my pregnancy – I was terrified,” Talliya, from Pennsylvania, US, told NeedToKnow.Online.

Thankfully, medics told her the strange occurrence was in fact rather common and named .

It's a condition where an extra finger or toe develops while in the womb and is the second most common birth defect, with a 50 per cent chance of it being inherited, according to Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Sometimes the extra finger is well formed, but it's more common for it to be narrow and floppy, it said.

Since it's an hereditary condition, Talliya believed it was passed on from her uncle to Dessiah, as he also has an extra finger.

While typically only present in one child, the mum received another shock when one of her twins, Darla, aged one, was also born with the birth defect.

“I had no idea two of my kids were going to be born with an extra finger, as they weren’t detected on the ultrasounds," Talliya said.

“While the finger was boneless and flopped about, I didn’t feel squeamish because it was a part of my children."

There are a few ways of addressing polydactyly - you can let be or have extra fingers removed.

“I chose to remove them because they were pointless and the possibility of them biting or pulling it off – or getting it trapped – was too much of a worry," Talliya explained.

In order to remove it, medics can cut off the circulation through tying up the finger and allowing it to fall off naturally after birth.