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A woman in northwest China has made international headlines after giving birth to twins from two separate uteruses, a rare medical phenomenon. The condition known as uterus didelphys affects only 0.3% of women worldwide. What’s remarkable is that both uteruses were fully formed, complete with ovaries and oviducts. According to the South China Morning Post, the woman surnamed Li, delivered a boy and girl in early September at Xi’an No 4 Hospital in Shaanxi province when she was eight and a half months pregnant. The babies were born healthy, with the boy weighing 3.3kg and the girl 2.4kg.
Cai Ying, a senior obstetrician at the hospital, described Li’s pregnancy as a “one in a million” event. “Being pregnant in each of the two uteruses through natural conception is very rare. We have only heard of a couple of such cases from both China and abroad,” Cai told SCMP.
Li, whose age remains undisclosed, experienced a miscarriage at 27 weeks in a previous pregnancy due to unknown factors. When she became pregnant again in January, doctors at Xi’an No 4 Hospital developed a specialised plan to ensure her safety.
To minimize risks, Li underwent a caesarean section. Fortunately, she and her newborn twins – a boy and a girl – were discharged from the hospital just four days after birth.
According to China state broadcaster CCTV, a similar case occurred in December last year in the US state of Alabama. A woman gave birth to twin girls, each developing in a separate uterus. Notably, this mother had previously given birth to three children, but those pregnancies involved only one of her two uteruses.
The Double Uterus Condition:
- Uterus didelphys occurs when two small tubes in the female fetus fail to join during development, resulting in two distinct uteruses
- In some cases, each uterus has its cervix, and a thin tissue wall may divide the vagina into two separate chambers.
- Women who have two uteruses face no symptoms till they become pregnant
- During pregnancy, they face a high risk of miscarriage, fetal underdevelopment, premature birth, and post-partum haemorrhages.
