A woman from Bangladesh gave birth to three babies — one of them a set of twins — 26 days apart.
CNN reports that the 20-year-old mom named Arifa Sultana gave birth vaginally to her first child, a boy, in February, and was discharged uneventfully thereafter. She was admitted back to the Ad-Din Hospital less then four weeks later after complaining of lower abdominal pain. When the doctors performed an ultrasound, it was found out she was pregnant with twins. The babies — a boy and a girl — had to be delivered via C-section.
How did this happen?
Arifa was born with a condition called uterus didelphys, or a double uterus, and her first child and the succeeding twins were conceived and developed in separate wombs. Uterus didelphys occurs in one out of every 2,000 women worldwide, and the occurrence of a twin gestation is even more rare at one in every one million women, says the report.
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According to Healthline, a double uterus can happen to a woman while she is still a baby inside her mother's womb. "Every uterus starts out as two small tubes called Mullerian ducts. As they begin to develop, they usually fuse together to form one uterus. But in rare cases, the tubes remain separate and become two uteri."
Based on the news report, Arifa did not get an ultrasound before the first delivery, so the other pregnancy was not discovered.
In 2009, a woman from Michigan also made headlines when she gave birth prematurely to twin girls, one from each womb. They discovered her uterus didelphys two years prior when she lost twins — also one in each womb — to miscarriage.
A woman who has uterus didelphys will usually not exhibit any symptoms although unusually heavy menstrual flow and recurring miscarriages may be indicators. Nonetheless, it is possible for someone with this condition to carry a pregnancy to term. A routine exam with your ob-gyn could help diagnose if you have it. There is usually no need to treat the condition, but a surgery may be recommended.
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