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submitted 11 months ago by girlfreddy@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

Kelsey Hatcher, 32, delivered one daughter on Tuesday, and a second on Wednesday, at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Hospital.

Announcing the arrival of her "miracle babies" on social media, Ms Hatcher hailed the medics as "incredible".

The girls are described as fraternal twins - with rare separate birthdays.

Hatcher said the family was now back at home and could "enjoy the holidays". She had previously expected a Christmas due date.

The mother was told at age 17 she had a double uterus (uterus didelphys) - which the UAB described as a rare congenital anomaly affecting 0.3% of women.

And the odds of becoming pregnant in both uteri - a dicavitary pregnancy - were even slimmer, at "one in a million", according to the UAB.

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[-] RedWeasel@lemmy.world 21 points 11 months ago

They designated them as twins. How far apart would they have to be for them not to be considered twins? Say someone with the same condition gets a second pregnancy started 3 months later and delivers 3 months apart. would those still be considered twins?

[-] Stovetop@lemmy.world 22 points 11 months ago

Maybe it just has to do with date of conception? If they were both conceived at the same time but one was born earlier, they are still functionally the same as fraternal twins because they come from the same, er, "batch"?

[-] cynar@lemmy.world 19 points 11 months ago

I suspect that it would be impossible to get a 2nd pregnant after a couple of weeks of the first. The baby produces hormones that stop ovulation. The 2nd one would have to be in before that window.

I also suspect that the birth of the 1st would induce the second. She likely didn't leave labour, the 2nd just took longer, since it was, effectively, induced by the first.

Going back to the broader question, it's likely that both were inside the mother at the same time. In theory they could be 9 months apart, though that would likely require significant medical effort, and so is effectively impossible.

[-] Artemis@lemmy.ml 7 points 11 months ago

Really interesting point! Also, what about babies born via IVF that don't technically share a womb at the same time, but were from the same "batch" of sperm and eggs?

[-] Pregnenolone@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

I mean, we’d be talking the absolute fringes of medical phenomena. In my opinion if they dicavitary at all, they’re twins, regardless of time.

[-] sentient_loom@sh.itjust.works 16 points 11 months ago

Some women don't even have one womb. This is womb inequality at its worst.

[-] ThrowawayPermanente@sh.itjust.works 2 points 11 months ago
[-] sentient_loom@sh.itjust.works 0 points 11 months ago

If only there were such womb-justice.

[-] Pickle_Jr@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 11 months ago

What if both wombs conceived twins 😱😱

[-] shifted_drifter@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

Sounds like tiny babies or a pretty extreme pregnancy

[-] lurch@sh.itjust.works -2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

0.3% of all women isn't even that rare. nor is one in a million [pregnancies]

[-] GhostsAreShitty@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago

That is rare, and being pregnant in both is what’s “one in a million.” Have you heard of this happening before?

[-] CaptainSpaceman@lemmy.world 8 points 11 months ago

I get where the other poster is coming from tho, it sounds like 3500 women alive right now will have this type of pregnancy (1 in a million of 3.5bn women)

However, I think its of the .3% that are born dicavitary, there is THEN a 1 in a million shot to have both uteri fertilized, which means it would only happen once every few generations.

this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2023
165 points (97.7% liked)

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