A Chinese woman has made headlines after she remarkably gave birth to twins from her two uteruses — an event one doctor has described as a “one in a million” event.
The woman, known as Li, has two complete uteruses — a condition called uterus didelphys, which occurs in only 0.3% of all women. According to Cleveland Clinic, the uterine cavity in each uterus is narrower than normal, and each uterus has its own fallopian tube and ovary.
While the condition is rare, it is even rarer that Li conceived naturally in both uteruses, which led to her giving birth to twins. According to South China Morning Post, women with a double-uterus pregnancy “are at an increased risk of repeated miscarriages, premature birth, underdevelopment of the fetus, and postpartum hemorrhages.”
Reportedly, Li had previously suffered a miscarriage at 27 weeks, which caused doctors to monitor her even more closely in order to give her twins the best chance possible at survival.
Her babies, a boy and a girl, were delivered via c-section weighing 3.3kg (7.28lbs) and 2.4kg (5.29lbs). The twins were healthy and were discharged from the hospital, alongside Li, four days after birth.
“Being pregnant in each of the two uteruses through natural conception is very rare. We have only heard of a couple of such cases from both China and abroad,” said Cai Ying, an obstetrician at the the Xi’an hospital where the babies were delivered. “It’s even rarer that a woman with this condition would successfully give birth after 37 weeks,” she said. Ying added that it was a “one in a million” occurrence.
In 2023, Live Action News shared the story of an Alabama mom named Kelsey Hatcher who also had twins from double uteruses.
“A double cervix or double uteruses way under 1% [sic], maybe three per 1,000 women might have that,” Dr. Richard Davis, a UAB maternal-fetal medicine who treated Hatcher said. “And then the probability of you having a twin in each horn is really crazy.”
