A Mother With Two Wombs Delivers Miraculous Twins
Did you know that it’s possible for a woman to have two wombs? It’s a rare medical anomaly technically referred to by medical professionals as uterus didelphys. And mom Kelsey Hatcher is one of the few to have been diagnosed with it. But not even she could’ve predicted that her fourth pregnancy would result in the miraculous birth of babies from both her wombs.
An exclusive club
While it might seem like there isn’t much else to learn about the human body, a curveball is thrown every so often to keep the experts on their toes. And uterus didelphys certainly qualifies in that respect!
This condition is insanely rare in the grand scheme of things. Statistically, only 0.3 percent of women on the planet carry two wombs; it’s an exclusive club to say the least.
“Higher risk of miscarriage”
Now, even though women with two wombs can have straightforward pregnancies, their condition also has the potential to cause worrying complications. The International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health published a paper that shed more light on that back in 2022.
One particular passage read, “Most women with a uterus didelphys are asymptomatic. The anomaly is associated with a higher risk of miscarriage, preterm labor, breech delivery, and decreased live births.” The issues don’t end there, either.
More potential problems
In addition to those potential health risks, uterus didelphys can leave women infertile as well. And if that wasn’t concerning enough, it can lead to complications with their kidneys, too.
Beyond that, not much else is known about the “risk factors” of having two wombs. It’s still a bit of a medical mystery. But in December 2023 the anomaly made headlines thanks to one mom’s incredible story.
Meeting Kelsey Hatcher
A resident of Alabama, Kelsey first discovered that she had two wombs when she was just 17. Fortunately, the diagnosis didn’t stop her from building a family over the next several years.
Kelsey went on to enjoy three successful pregnancies with no complications. And in the initial stages of her fourth pregnancy, everything seemed normal enough. Yet a surprise was fast approaching.
A worrying sign?
Just weeks after finding out that another baby was on the way, Kelsey noticed something quite concerning. She spotted a bit of blood, which prompted her to arrange an ultrasound at her hospital.
Kelsey was fully aware of the miscarriage risk that came with having two wombs, so she didn’t want to take any chances. What happened next caught everyone off guard, though.
Big relief
Kelsey underwent her ultrasound at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital, otherwise known as the UAB. Thankfully, her baby was looking good, which must’ve come as a huge relief.
But she didn’t immediately jump off the table. Instead, Kelsey was curious to see if anything was going on in her second womb, asking the sonographer to give it a scan.
“I gasped”
The sonographer duly obliged, leading to a truly jaw-dropping moment. Looking back on that memorable day at the hospital, the Alabama mom spoke to the UAB website in December 2023.
Kelsey said, “As soon as she moved the wand to the other uterus, I gasped. Sure enough, there was another baby. We just could not believe it.” And they weren’t the only ones.
Kelsey’s obstetrician was stunned, too!
Following the remarkable discovery, the news soon reached Kelsey’s obstetrician, Dr. Shweta Patel. She also serves as an assistant professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the hospital.
To say Dr. Patel was left stunned by what had been found would be putting it mildly. She was so bamboozled that she had to look at the scans in person to verify that it was true.
A one-in-a-million chance
You see, this kind of case is as rare as it gets. There’s only a one-in-a-million shot of a woman carrying a baby in each of her two wombs at the same time.
It’s referred to as a dicavitary pregnancy in medical circles. Dr. Patel went into more detail about her initial reaction to the unbelievable discovery while chatting with the UAB website.
“I would need additional expertise”
“I had already taken care of Kelsey through her third pregnancy and knew she had a double uterus,” Dr. Patel recalled. “But that was only one baby — two babies in two uteri were a true medical surprise.”
“I knew I would need additional expertise [in this case]. Luckily, I was able to reach out to my UAB maternal-fetal medicine colleagues who specialize in high-risk obstetrics cases and unique pregnancies.”
“You’re lying!”
As the medical experts tried to get their heads around the case, Kelsey had to explain what she’d found out to her husband, Caleb. And much like Dr. Patel, he could barely believe it.
As the mom told NBC News in November 2023 with a smile, “I said, ‘Well, there’s two of them in there.’ And he said, ‘You’re lying!’ I said, ‘No I’m not!’”
The next steps
Despite the rarity of dicavitary pregnancies, Kelsey didn’t require special treatment over the following months. Barring a few extra meetings with her medical teams, the pregnancy was as straightforward as they come.
But broadly speaking, what was actually going on in Kelsey’s wombs during that period of time? How did this situation differ from a “normal” twin pregnancy in a single uterus?
“A high possibility”
Well, to help explain that, Dr. Richard O. Davis spoke to the UAB website. As an expert in maternal-fetal medicine, he was set to co-manage Kelsey’s case alongside Dr. Patel.
Dr. Davis said, “In a typical twin pregnancy, the twins share one womb, which can limit the amount of space each has, making preterm or early birth a high possibility.”
Growing attention
“With Kelsey’s babies, they each had their own womb, sac, placenta and umbilical cord, allowing them extra space to grow and develop,” Dr. Davis continued. So at least the foetuses were comfy, if not the poor mom!
Unsurprisingly, the unique nature of the pregnancy brought a lot of attention Kelsey’s way, especially as she got closer to her due date. How did she find that? Was she comfortable with it?
“It’s a lot”
“I’m typically not one that likes a lot of attention and doesn’t want people talking about all my stuff,” Kelsey admitted to NBC News. “So for [my case] to be this rare and kind of out there, I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh!’
“It’s a lot [to deal with].” But while Kelsey had to get used to the growing media glare, her medical team had to deal with a conundrum of their own.
Doing some much-needed research
Dr. Patel and Dr. Davis were both on untrodden ground when it came to planning the delivery and whatever else might come up heading into it. Don’t forget, neither of them had first-hand experience here.
So the doctors had to do plenty of research to fully prepare themselves for the big day. That meant digging into previous dicavitary pregnancy cases, of which they could only access a “handful.”
Similar cases?
Speaking of which, you might be wondering: have any other dicavitary pregnancies made headlines in a similar way to Kelsey’s? Well, one such case did attract some attention back in March 2019.
It involved a young woman named Arifa Sultana, who lived in Bangladesh. Now, to complicate matters further, she had been of the belief that she was only carrying one baby prior to her due date.
Intense pain
Arifa went on to deliver her baby son prematurely towards the end of February 2019 at the Khulna Medical College Hospital. All seemed well, and she was soon allowed to return home.
But just over three weeks later, Arifa started to feel an intense pain in her abdomen. It got so bad that the young mom had to be whisked off to hospital again. This time, though, she was taken to a different facility.
“Twin babies”
Arifa arrived at the Ad-din Hospital in March 2019 and was quickly seen by gynecologist Dr. Sheila Poddar. Neither of them could’ve predicted what followed. Dr. Poddar recalled their first meeting during a chat with BBC News.
She revealed, “When the patient came in we performed an ultrasound on her and found there were twin babies.” Yep, Arifa had a second womb and it was carrying them both.
“Shocked and surprised”
“We were very shocked and surprised,” Dr. Poddar continued. “I have never observed something like this before.” How did this get missed the first time around at the other hospital?
Well, as it turned out, Arifa hadn’t received an ultrasound scan at any point prior to her first baby’s birth. So she had no reason to believe that her body even featured two wombs.
“I am very, very happy”
Dr. Poddar added, “[Arifa] had no idea that she had two other babies. We carried out a cesarean and she delivered twins, one male and female. The babies and her are all healthy.”
She added, “I am very, very happy that everything went well.” Meanwhile, another dicavitary pregnancy case was recorded in Cornwall, England, in May 2018. The woman in question here was named Jennifer Ashwood.
Undetected
During Jennifer’s first pregnancy, no one noticed that she had a second womb. And rather surprisingly, that didn’t change when she discovered that she was carrying twins in her next pregnancy.
Not even a scan at 12 weeks highlighted it. Yet everything changed after Jennifer was examined again a few weeks later. She shed some light on that moment with BBC News in August 2018.
Concerning word
Jennifer explained, “At the 20-week scan [the doctors] discovered that I had two uteruses.” Much like in Kelsey’s case, the twins occupied both wombs. “They said it was very rare, so I wondered if they would remain viable,” she noted.
“They said there was a high chance of premature labor or a miscarriage.” Fortunately for Jennifer and her babies, they managed to swerve the latter scenario. The former was a different story, though.
“Extremely special”
At the 28-week mark, Jennifer went into premature labor, which prompted the doctors to delay it via medication. It had the desired effect for around six weeks, at which point the labor started again.
Jennifer ultimately underwent a C-section to safely deliver her twins. “[They’re] doing really well,” the mom said three months after their birth. “Any baby is a miracle, but these two are extremely special.”
A conundrum
Now, here’s where Dr. Patel and Dr. Davis faced a conundrum. In the two previous cases we’ve just looked at, the delivery methods weren’t the same. Arifa’s first baby arrived through a vaginal birth before the twins came via a c-section.
And Jennifer’s twins were both delivered via cesarean. So what were their plans for Kelsey? What method would they go for? Well, the UAB doctors broke it down into three possibilities.
Planning the delivery
The first was that Kelsey might deliver both her twins through a vaginal birth. As for the second possibility, she could welcome one baby vaginally before undergoing a cesarean to retrieve the sibling.
And the third was that the mom might need a C-section to deliver both of them. In the view of Dr. Patel and Dr. Davis, they were pretty eager to swerve one of those scenarios.
“The same birth experience”
Dr. Patel told the UAB website, “While C-sections may be a more controlled delivery option for high-risk cases like this one, we didn’t want to jump to the third plan immediately, knowing Kelsey’s history of successful vaginal births from both uteri.”
“We also listened to Kelsey’s wishes. She wanted to aim to have the same birth experience for the girls as her other children, if safe and possible.” And all of this brings up another interesting point to consider.
The ideal scenario
Ideally, Kelsey and the medical team were hoping that she would go into labor without any prompts. But in a dicavitary pregnancy, the two wombs aren’t always in sync when it comes time to give birth.
Dr. Davis told NBC News, “When she goes into labor, if she does, we will have to monitor each uterus and see which one is contracting: if they’re doing almost the same or they’re different.”
The waiting game
In other words, there was a chance that Kelsey could deliver one baby and then be made to wait days or weeks before the second birth. Lest we forget, that’s what happened in Arifa’s case.
So let’s jump ahead now to the 39th week of Kelsey’s pregnancy. At that stage, there was still no sign of movement, prompting the doctors to enact an alternative plan.
Induced labor
Yes, Kelsey’s team invited her to the UAB just before Christmas on December 19, 2023, to induce labor. Mind you, this wasn’t going to be the most simple of induction procedures.
Due to her two wombs, Kelsey needed two labor and delivery nurses in the room to watch each one separately. Then, there was the issue with synchronicity — or rather the lack of it!
The contractions begin...
“As my contractions began, they were not consistently together but were within a few seconds of each other,” Kelsey recalled to the UAB website. “I felt each side contracting in different areas as well.”
“I felt one consistent with the monitor that started on the left side, and moved to the right.” After playing a bit of a waiting game, it became clear that Kelsey’s right womb was responding more quickly than the left
Delivering “Baby A”
Having established this, the doctors opted to zone in on that side, breaking Kelsey’s water. From there, the Alabama mom spent the next several hours pushing while the other womb continued to contract.
She was finally able to complete a vaginal delivery of “Baby A,” who was later named Roxi, at 7.45 p.m. The relief in the room was palpable, yet there was still a way to go.
“There was a cheer”
Dr. Patel remembered, “There was a cheer from everyone in the room when the first baby was delivered, but there was another baby left. Kelsey was essentially laboring in the left uterus while simultaneously undergoing the postpartum process in the right.”
“She was having contractions with Baby B while breastfeeding Baby A.” So what was the plan at that stage? Well, simply put, the team just had to play it by ear.
“Baby B” wouldn’t budge
The doctors continued to talk to Kelsey while also monitoring the progress of “Baby B.” As a group, they opted to push on with the induced labor on the left side.
Unlike with Roxi, though, it didn’t appear to be making much of a difference. Due to that, everyone eventually decided that a cesarean would be the better option for all concerned.
“It meant the world”
“Baby B,” who was named Rebel, was welcomed into the world more than ten hours after Roxi. She was born at 6.10 am on December 20, 2023. Talk about an epic endeavor!
Roxi’s cradle was still in the delivery room when Rebel arrived, much to Kelsey’s delight. “After such a long and crazy journey, it meant the world to see both of my girls together for the first time,” the mom beamed.
“You don’t always have clear-cut answers”
While this incredible story didn’t do much to solve the mystery of what causes uterus didelphys, it did accomplish something else. Yes, it was a further example of just how fascinating human biology really is.
And for Dr. Patel, the experience was particularly special. She noted, “It goes to show that the field of obstetrics is always changing and unpredictable, and you don’t always have clear-cut answers.”
The twin question
“It takes a team of experts from obstetricians to amazing nurses and a skilled anesthesia team to take care of such a rare pregnancy,” Dr. Patel continued. “I’m grateful that Kelsey was at UAB, where we could provide her with that interdisciplinary care.”
Following Roxi and Rebel’s birth, though, an intriguing question arose about their sibling status. Are they actually twins, or just plain sisters? The answer isn’t as cut-and-dried as you might think.
“Different apartments”
During a standard twin pregnancy, the two babies share a womb and come from a single fertilized egg. Yet in the case of Rebel and Roxi, they came from two separate eggs that were fertilized at a similar time.
Dr. Davis said of the debate, “I think it’s safe to call the girls fraternal twins. At the end of the day, it was two babies in one belly at the same time. They just had different apartments.”
“Unique birth stories”
Anyway, it seems only fitting to leave Kelsey with the final word on this miraculous story. She concluded, “Never in our wildest dreams could we have planned a pregnancy and birth like this.”
“But bringing our two healthy baby girls into this world safely was always the goal. It seems appropriate that they had two birthdays, though. They both had their own ‘houses,’ and now both have their own unique birth stories.”