What Is Bicornuate Uterus? Woman With Two Wombs Gives Birth To Twins

In a one-in-500 million chance, a woman who conceived in her two wombs simultaneously gave birth to twins in Camborne, England.

Jennifer Ashwood, 31, and her husband Andrew House learned they were expecting twins in December 2017, however, two months later it was revealed she was suffering from bicornuate uterus and had two wombs, with one baby in each.

She went into labor at 34 weeks and gave birth to son Piran and daughter Poppy via cesarean. Two weeks later, the twins were sent home after a treatment for jaundice.

In most cases, women with this condition can only carry one baby in one uterus however in this case, she ovulated and released two eggs which fertilized and remained in separate sections of the uterus.

"To have the two uterus' is rare in itself, but to have an egg in both, then those to be fertilised and then for both eggs to be in the right part, it's a bit of a miracle,” she said. "It is ridiculously rare. The odds were stacked against us but it all worked out. You think that you know your body well, but it turns out you might not."

"It's crazy when you think about it. It's possible that the fertilisation could have occurred one or even two days apart, but it was from the same time. We found out at the 20 week scan and ever since people have been saying how rare it was,” Ashwood said.

Ashwood also has an eight-year-old daughter, Millie. “Definitely compared to my first pregnancy I was sick much, much more. Because it's so rare to carry a baby in each one, they didn't really quite know what was going to happen until they opened me up and took a look,” she said.

"They thought they were going to have to do an incision in each one to get them out, but they made one and managed to get the little boy out. They were just about to start on the other one, but she managed to kick her little foot through,” Daily Star reported.

Bicornuate uterus is a congenital abnormality where the uterus is heart-shaped with two horn-shaped projections and is formed during development of the fetus. It does not cause extra difficulties with conception, but increases the risk of miscarriage and preterm birth.

Some of the symptoms include irregular vaginal infection, repeated miscarriages, abdominal discomfort and pain during intercourse.

Babies born to mothers suffering from this condition have higher chances of developing birth defects compared to those born to women without the condition. The condition cannot be prevented or stopped but the uterus can be corrected surgically.

It is hard for a woman suffering from the condition to continue with the pregnancy to full term as the chances of the baby developing inside the abnormal environment are very less. It is usually diagnosed during an ultrasound performed to look at the uterus during pregnancy.