One in 500 million: Mother with two uteruses gets pregnant in both and gives birth to twins
When a woman is pregnant and when she goes for her check-ups to the gynecologist before the actual birth, it will always be a surprise for those who find out that they are going to have more than one baby. For Jennifer Ashwood, the surprise came from finding out that she not only had twins on the way but that they were inside separate wombs. Ashwood had been told that she had become pregnant with the babies at the same time in both the wombs. This type of extraordinary phenomenon is quite rare and there are less than a hundred incidents that have been recorded around the world.
The odds are 500 million to one in a case of two wombs in the mother and both eggs being fertilized and only a handful of these cases have been recorded in the UK. Many pregnant women who have Ashwood's condition, which is known as a bicornuate uterus, normally only carry one baby on one side. 31-year-old Ashwood went without knowing she had two uteruses even after having her first child, 8-year-old Millie. She told the Daily Mail: "I've had a baby before and it was really straightforward. But my body surprised me this time. We found out at the 20-week scan and ever since people have been saying how rare it was."
Ashwood, who is a care worker, along with her husband Andrew who is a fireman, found out in December that they were expecting twins the second time around. In February, however, the parents found out that she had two wombs with one baby in each after the doctors found an abnormality in her ultrasound scans. The double uterus condition itself does not cause any extra problems with the conception but there is a higher risk of miscarriage or premature birth.
Ashwood, who is from Camborne in Cornwall, went into labor with the twins at just 34 weeks and gave birth to son Piran, 5lb 10oz, and her daughter Poppy, 5lb 3oz, through C-section. The babies had jaundice at birth and were able to go home after spending two weeks in medical care being treated for it.
The proud mother said: "To have the two [wombs] is rare in itself, but to have an egg in both, then those to be fertilized and then for both eggs to be in the right part ... it's a bit of a miracle. You think you know your body well, but it turns out you might not. Compared to my first pregnancy I was sick much, much more. Because it's so rare to carry a baby in each [womb], they didn't really quite know what was going to happen until they opened me up and took a look."
"It's very, very busy at home now. We haven't had much sleep but I don't think we'd be having much even if we just had one. It's double the cuddles and double the love. Millie is getting used to things slowly. When we told her it was twins she said she only wanted one, but she's coming round to the idea now."