Kelsey Hatcher, a 32-year-old American lady from Alabama, was born with two uteruses and is now pregnant in both. In a recent interview, she and her spouse Caleb expressed their amazement at finding out Kelsey was expecting two twins, adding to their first shock at finding out she was earlier this year.
Kelsey, who is sharing her journey on Instagram under the handle "doubleuhatchlings," stated that she and her husband discovered that she was carrying twins and that there was a fetus in both of her uteruses back in May during a regular eight-week ultrasound checkup.
Since she was 17 years old, the massage therapist and mother of three has been aware of her uncommon ailment, "uterus didelphys," in which a person is born with two uteruses and two cervixes.
We were quite taken aback! We laughed a lot throughout that first ultrasound, Kelsey said on Instagram.
"I wondered if there was anybody I could reach out to just to, you know, see what their experiences were," I said when I first learned about the situation. Hatcher said on "Good Morning America" on ABC News.
"However, I believe I've only come across two other instances where women have given birth in entirely different , and I haven't been able to get in touch with anyone about them," the 32-year-old continued.
With her three prior pregnancies, Kelsey bore a single kid in a single uterus that delivered the baby safely and at full term. Her children are currently seven, four, and 23 months old.
When asked how she felt about the news, Hatcher said she urged the nurse not to worry if the ultrasound revealed a second uterus, even if the scan revealed a second baby. "Oh my gosh, there's another one," I shouted before she could say anything, Hatcher told ABC News.
“Probably all I did was laugh for 30 minutes or so because it was just like, this is not happening,” she added. Pregnancies in both uteruses are exceedingly rare. Hatcher said she was told the odds were one in 50 million.
Physicians clarify
According to Shweta Patel, the obstetrician-gynecologist who is caring for Hatcher at the University of Alabama at Birmingham's Women & Infants Center, "most likely what happened is that she ovulated separately and had one egg come down each fallopian tube, meaning coming down on each side of the uterus, and then sperm travelled up on each separate uterus and fertilisation occurred separately..." ABC News.
Separately, Patel stated to NBC station WVTM that her pregnancy is high-risk due to its rarity, calling it "very, very rare."
It is also possible that Kelsey's uteruses contract at separate times, meaning that her kids may be delivered hours, days, or even weeks apart. "In terms of medicine, I believe that this is so uncommon that there isn't a better term for it than calling them twins," Patel stated.
Due on December 25, Christmas Day, Hatcher is anticipated to give birth to both of the kids, or "the girlies," as she lovingly refers to them.
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