Woman born with two uteri expecting a child in both, a one in 50 million chance
Kelsey Hatcher, a 32-year-old mother of three, and her husband Caleb received a surprising revelation earlier this year when they discovered that Kelsey was pregnant. The shock escalated when, during Kelsey’s eight-week ultrasound, they learned that she was expecting twins, and, uniquely, each baby was situated in its own uterus. This rare condition, known as uterine didelphys, results from being born with two uteri and two cervixes.
Uterine didelphys is already a rare condition, and the odds of having pregnancies in each uterus simultaneously are approximately “one in a million,” according to Doctor Richard Davis, a specialist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Women & Infants Center, where Kelsey is currently receiving care. Despite Kelsey learning about her double uterus at the age of 17, her three previous pregnancies each involved a single baby in one uterus, all reaching full term without complications.
During the eight-week ultrasound for her current pregnancy, Kelsey, anticipating the possibility of twins, asked the nurse to confirm only one baby. However, to everyone’s surprise, including Kelsey’s, a second baby was discovered on the scan. Both babies are considered fraternal twins, conceived separately through individual eggs and fertilisation.
Sharing her extraordinary pregnancy journey on Instagram, Hatcher has been regularly updating her followers with glimpses into her unique experience. Posting images from a recent biophysical profile (BPP) scan, also known as prenatal ultrasound, featuring close-ups of the babies’ faces, she expressed her joy over the successful ultrasound, stating: “The girls passed their BPP ultrasound this week! Everything looked great, and the tech said ‘They are all stars!’”
Kelsey’s husband, Caleb, expressed his astonishment at the news, stating: “I don’t know what happened differently this time, but it’s wild.” Doctor Shweta Patel, the OBGYN overseeing Kelsey’s care, explained that in this unique case, it is likely that Kelsey ovulated separately, with one egg travelling down each fallopian tube and being fertilised by sperm in each uterus.
“They could be born minutes apart, or they can be born days apart,” Patel told ABC News. “It’s so unpredictable, and that’s why we’ve had a lot of conversations with Kelsey kind of talking about the different scenarios that could happen, where she could have a vaginal delivery with both babies, she could have a vaginal delivery with one and a C-section with the other, or maybe end up having a C-section for both of them as well.”
Doctor Patel emphasised that while there is no established expertise in managing pregnancies in two uteri, they are relying on foundational knowledge of pregnancy physiology and adapting it to Kelsey’s unique scenario.
