An American woman from Alabama, with two uteruses, gave birth to two babies on two different days. Each of the children was in a different womb. The first was born on December 19, the second on December 20.
“We could never, even in our dreams, have planned a pregnancy and birth like this. But delivering our two healthy girls safely was always the goal,” said mother Kelsey Hatcher. “It seems fitting that they had two birthdays. They both had their own ‘house’ and now their own birth stories,” he added.
Kelsey discovered at age 17 that she had a double uterus, also known as a didelphys uterus. It is a very rare condition, affecting only 0.3% of women worldwide.
Kelseuy discovered she would be a mother of two babies when she had her first ultrasound. Kelsey’s obstetrician, Shweta Patel, an assistant professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UAB, didn’t want to believe what she was seeing until she knew for sure after several tests.
Having a baby in each uterus, a phenomenon known as dicavitary pregnancy, is quite rare and is estimated to occur in one in a million women.
“I had already cared for Kelsey during her third pregnancy and knew she had a double uterus, but it was only one baby. Two babies in two wombs was a real medical surprise,” the doctor said.
In addition to the uterus, each of the babies had its own sac, placenta and umbilical cord, giving them more space than in a typical twin pregnancy, explains Richard O. Davis, professor in UAB’s Maternal-Fetal Department.
Each baby was born differently: the first was a natural birth and the second was a caesarean section. The first girl born was Roxi, who was in the womb in which Kelsey’s first three children were born. For the second baby, Rabel, the medical team opted for a caesarean section.
The question now is whether they are twins. A twin pregnancy means that they are born in the same womb during the same pregnancy. Since Kelsey had one baby in each uterus, they were created by two eggs fertilized during the same ovulation cycle. “I think it is safe to call the girls fraternal twins,” the medical team said. “In the end, there were two babies in the same belly at the same time. They just had different ‘homes’.”
Source: DN
