An Alabama mom with a rare double uterus who defied one in 50 million odds by becoming pregnant in each has given birth to twin girls one day after the other.
Kelsey Hatcher, 32, delivered little Roxi Layla on Tuesday at 7:49 pm and Rebel Laken on Wednesday at 6:09 am, each weighing over seven pounds.
A beaming Hatcher shared a photo of herself at the maternity unit at University of Alabama at Birmingham in the moments before her babies arrived.
‘Our miracle babies were born! They decided they were rare enough statistically that they should just go ahead and have their own birthdays too.
‘I can’t wait to share the entire birth story with you guys! While we are all home now, we will take the time bond, recover, and enjoy the holidays.’
Doctors had estimated a Christmas due date, but following 20 hours of combined labor after Hatcher was induced at 39 weeks, the sisters arrived just in time to be at home for the holidays with their siblings.
The mom-of-five has known she has ‘uterus didelphys,’ a rare congenital condition thought to affect three in every 1,000 women since she was 17. In such cases, each uterus has only one ovary and one fallopian tube.
It was during a routine eight-week ultrasound visit in May that Hatcher, a massage therapist, learned not only that she was having twins this time, but that a fetus was present in each of her uteruses.
‘As soon as she (the technician) moved the wand to the other uterus, I gasped,’ Kelsey recalled, according to a statement by University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital.
‘Sure enough, there was another baby. We just could not believe it.’
Pregnancies in both uteruses are exceedingly rare, according to Shweta Patel, the obstetrician-gynecologist who cared for Hatcher at UAB’s Women & Infants Center.
Patel was Hatcher’s doctor during her third pregnancy. ‘But that was only one baby — two babies in two uteri were a true medical surprise,’ she said in the statement, noting she received additional help from UAB experts in high-risk obstetrics.
Richard Davis, professor at the hospital’s Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, said the congenital anomaly of Hatcher’s dicavitary twin pregnancy meant her babies were not forced to share a single, cramped womb, a condition that would have made pre-term birth a high possibility.
With Kelsey’s babies, they each had their own womb, sac, placenta and umbilical cord, allowing them extra space to grow and develop,’ Davis said in the statement, which was accompanied by a hospital-produced video about Hatcher’s pregnancy and delivery.
While the mom is yet to share the full birth story, images from the hospital suggest at least one delivery was via C-section.
The arrival of the twins means that Hatcher and husband Caleb now have their hands full with five children under the age of eight.
Medics previously confirmed the newborns will be classed as fraternal twins.
Hatcher said she was told the odds of a double pregnancy in double wombs were one in 50 million.
The last widely known case was in Bangladesh in 2019, when Arifa Sultana, then 20, gave birth to healthy babies 26 days apart.
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