Featured Image Credit: Instagram/@doubleuhatchlings
Topics: Parenting, Sex and Relationships, Pregnancy, Real Life
Ella Scott
Topics: Parenting, Sex and Relationships, Pregnancy, Real Life
An American woman born with two uteri is pregnant in both and expected to give birth later this year.
While it’s estimated that one in 250 natural pregnancies results in twins, it’s not very often that we see two babies being born from different uteri in the same woman, is it?
But that's what is happening to Alabama’s Kelsey Hatcher, who found out she was adding two new members to her brood earlier this year.
The mum, who already has three children with her husband Caleb, was born with uterus didelphys.
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According to Mayo Clinic, uterus didelphys is a rare condition that is present at birth and sees the female body developing two separate uteri.
According to local news outlet WVTM 13, Kelsey also has two working cervices, and is pregnant in both.
Despite knowing about her body’s anomaly for some time, this is the first time that Kelsey has carried two separate babies simultaneously.
Speaking about delivering the news to her husband, Kelsey recounted: “I said ‘Well, there’s two of them in there’ and he said ‘You’re lying’. I said ‘No, I’m not’.
Since discovering her rare pregnancy at her first ultrasound appointment, she has attracted a tsunami of media attention and has become the subject of a case study.
However, she claims that she isn’t usually someone who likes ‘a lot of attention’.
She told the local news outlet: “I don’t want people to be talking about all my stuff and so to be this rare and kind of out there, I’m like ‘Oh my gosh, this is a lot’.”
Despite Kelsey’s abnormal pregnancy being deemed dangerous, it’s reported that both baby girls are growing ‘exactly as they should’.
But as the kids aren’t sharing a womb, the mother may have to enter hospital on two separate occasions to give birth.
UAB Dr. Richard Davis, who specialises in high-risk pregnancies said: “We will have to monitor each uterus to see which one’s contracting and if they’re doing sort of the same or they’re different.”
It’s further claimed that the sisters could actually end up being born ‘days, hours or weeks’ apart from one another.
And because each child has a separate due date, the question of whether they are twins or siblings has been thrown about.
On the topic, Obstetrician Dr. Shweta Patel said that the situation is ‘very, very rare’ and that right now, twins describe the pair best.
So by the end of 2023, the Hatcher family are expected to have a staggering five children under the age of eight.
When asked to clarify if the kids would be her last, Kelsey said: “Yes! The third one was our last one. But no, we’re grateful for the blessings for sure. But this will definitely be the end.”
There are a team of specialist doctors standing by ready for when the mother-to-be eventually pops.