Rare case: Woman with two wombs doubly pregnant

A woman from Alabama, Kelsey Hatcher, who was born with two uteruses, is currently expecting two girls, one in each of her two uteruses.

Kelsey and her husband, Caleb, already have three children aged seven, four, and two. Last spring, they received the news of another pregnancy.

Kelsey explained that her husband did not believe her at first, though they were already aware of her unique condition with two wombs, each with its own cervix.

"This is an extremely rare case," said Dr. Shweta Patel, an obstetrics and gynecology specialist, to WVTM, explaining that many doctors and gynecologists go through their entire careers without encountering anything like this.

What is this condition?

Uterus didelphys is a rare uterine malformation where the uterus forms as a double organ. This condition occurs when the mullerian ducts in a female fetus fail to merge into a single uterus during embryonic development.

Instead, they develop as two separate structures, resulting in a double uterus with two cervixes and sometimes a double vagina. Approximately one in every 3,000 women are affected by this disorder, which increases the risk of miscarriage, premature birth, and bleeding during pregnancy. 

Kelsey's two uteruses can contract at different times, potentially allowing her to give birth to each girl hours or even days apart, according to Dr. Richard Davis, a specialist in high-risk pregnancies from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He explained that the contractions of each uterus will be closely monitored to determine if they occur simultaneously or at different times.

Kelsey's situation is so unusual that doctors are unsure whether to classify the pregnancies as twins. Each baby has its own placenta. Medically speaking, it is such a rare occurrence that there is no better term to describe it other than twins.