Two uteri, two pregnancies: The very rare case of an American woman

Christmas is the season of joy, gift-giving and of families united. A wonderful present has arrived for the Hatcher family in Alabama this Christmas. Far better than others! Born with two uteri and two cervixes, Kelsey Hatcher is pregnant in both, a rare medical case that has stunned the medical community. The uniqueness of Hatcher’s pregnancy has garnered massive attention, prompting her and the babies to become the focus of a case study. Let’s take a closer look. The double pregnancy surprise Hatcher is currently around 34 weeks pregnant and her due date is 25 December – Christmas Day. The 52-year-old Hatcher learned she was pregnant last spring, which put her and her husband, Caleb Hatcher, in an unexpected situation. When Hatcher’s two babies — one in a separate uterus — were discovered to be inside her at the initial ultrasound visit, the astonishment grew. Speaking to local NBC affiliate WVTM13, Hatcher recalled how she shared the big news with husband, “I said, ‘Well, there’s two of them in there.’ And he said, ‘You’re lying.’ I said, ‘No, I’m not.’’ Hatcher told Good Morning America, “When I first found out, I was like, ‘I wonder if there’s anybody I can reach out to just to, you know, see what their experiences were. But I think I’ve only read of two other cases (in which) they’ve had (pregnancies) in completely separate uteruses, and no one that I’ve been able to reach out to.” Hatcher discovered that she has two uteruses at the age of 17. However, she had only one child in one uterus for her prior three pregnancies. She added that her three children, who are currently seven, four, and 23 months old, all went to term and delivered their babies safely. Hatcher claimed that one of the first things she questioned at her eight-week ultrasound session was whether she knew she could still be carrying twins with her fourth pregnancy. “I said, ‘There’s only one right?,’ and the [nurse] said, ‘Yeah, there’s only one.’ So, I just kind of laid back and was relaxing. Everything looked good. There was only one,” she recalled. According to Hatcher, she and the nurse both noticed a second foetus on the ultrasound scan just as she was urging the nurse not to worry if she saw a second uterus. “Before she could say anything, I said, ‘Oh my gosh, there’s another one’. Probably all I did was laugh for 30 minutes or so because it was just like, this is not happening,” she said. Dr Shweta Patel, Hatcher’s obstetrician, was surprised Hatcher has a double uterus – two functional uteri, and she has a baby in each of them. “Very, very rare. Some OB/GYNs go their whole careers without seeing anything like this,” WVTM13 quoted Dr Patel as saying. Meanwhile, her pregnancy is regarded as high risk because of how unusual it is. High risk pregnancy Less than one per cent of women have two uteruses, and the likelihood of having a twin in each is much smaller, according to Dr Richard Davis, a specialist in high-risk pregnancies at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “A double cervix or double uteruses way under one per cent, maybe three per 1,000 women might have that. And the chances of you having a twin in each uterus is really crazy,” he told WVTM13. Given the complexities of having two uteruses, a team of experts will be available to supervise the special delivery procedure as her due date on Christmas Day draws near. The two infants, both girls, are growing as expected, but the delivery is going to be difficult. “So when she goes into labour, if she does, then we will have to monitor each uterus and see which one’s contracting, and if they’re doing sort of almost the same or they’re different,” Dr Davis said. Doctors speculate that the girls might be born hours, days, or even weeks apart because each uterus might contract at a different moment. Even with their distinct uteri and placentas, the newborns’ classification is still up for debate in medicine. “I think medically, this is such a rare thing that we don’t have a better way of describing it besides still calling them twins,” Dr Patel said. Although Kelsey is thrilled to have two new family members, she and her husband are certain that this will be their last pregnancy. “The third one was our last one. (And) though we’re grateful for the blessings for sure … this will definitely be the end,” she said, according to People magazine. About double uterus According to the Mayo Clinic, a double uterus, also known as a double cervix, is an uncommon ailment that is sometimes “present at birth” in women. It arises when the foetus develops and the two tiny tubes normally unite to create the uterus. “Sometimes the two small tubes don’t join completely and each one develops into a separate organ. A double uterus may have one opening into one vagina known as the cervix. In some cases, each uterus has its own cervix,” the Mayo clinic concluded. With inputs from agencies