A woman with the rare condition of two uteruses delivered twins, one from each womb, last month at a hospital in northwestern China, according to health officials and state media.
The mother, identified only be her last name Li, welcomed a boy and a girl via caesarean section, the Xi’an People’s Hospital in Shaanxi province said, calling it a “one in a million” occurrence.
“It is extremely rare for twins to be conceived naturally in each cavity of the uterus, and even rarer for them to be carried to term,” the hospital said on its official account on China’s X-like social media platform Weibo on September 18.
Li herself was born with a rare congenital abnormality called uterus didelphys,meaning her uterus is split into two narrower cavities, each with its own fallopian tube and ovary
According to the hospital, the new mother was born with two cervixes and two uteruses,the condition, uterine didelphys is found in about 1 in 2,000 women.
Her story has captivated Chinese social media and become a trending topic, with more than 50 million views in recent days, many users sharing messages of awe.
“That’s a miracle!” one user wrote, while another said, “How lucky she is!”. Some expressed concern for the mother, one user writing “this must have been tough and dangerous for her!”
Li’s story appeared to show a happy outcome after facing such circumstances, with the hospital disclosing she had miscarried a previous pregnancy.
But in January, Li became pregnant again and discovered during an early ultrasound that she was expecting not just one child but twins – one in each womb.
Xi’an People’s Hospital said it is already “extremely rare” for twins to be conceived in two uteruses — and even rarer for them to carried to term. The hospital shared an ultrasound photo of the twins, in which both fetuses can be seen gestating in separate, side-by-side wombs.
After “close and strict” medical monitoring, she “successfully” gave birth to a boy weighing 7 pounds, 19 ounces and a girl weighing 5 pounds, 5 ounces, the hospital said.
Though incredibly rare, Li is not the only woman with two uteruses to successfully give birth to twins.
In 2023, an American woman from Alabama who was also diagnosed with uterus didelphys gave birth to twin daughters from separate wombs. One of the babies was born vaginally, while the other was delivered via c-section.
Uterus didelphys is a condition caused by a fetus’ failure to join together two ducts to create one uterus during development. The condition can affect a woman’s pregnancy and increase the risk of miscarriage and preterm birth.
One more photo below.
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