It happened in Bangladesh. Arifa Sultana, 20, gave birth to her first child through natural childbirth. He went home and after 26 days he returned to the hospital with severe pain in his abdomen , without knowing what was wrong with him. And his dizygotic twins (twins) were born , of whom he did not even know their existence.
It was then that doctors discovered that Arifa has two uteri, a congenital anomaly called didelphys or didelphys , which allows babies to grow in two different uteri.
An exceptional case
Arifa Sultana gave birth to a boy in late February after a normal delivery at a hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The mother and baby were discharged and less than four weeks later, the mother was admitted again to another center.
“She came to the hospital complaining of pain in her lower abdomen,” explained gynecologist Sheila Poddar from Ad-Din Hospital. That’s when doctors performed an ultrasound and realized that Sultana was pregnant with twins.
Sultana has two uteri, a condition called the didelphys uterus. Her first baby and the twins were conceived and grew up in separate wombs.
The doctor explains that no one realized that she was expecting three babies in different wombs, because they had not done any ultrasound during the pregnancy.
But Dr. Poddar performed an emergency cesarean section and the twins were born. Luckily, according to the gynecologist, “the three children and the mother are healthy and back home.”
What is the didelphic or double uterus
Double uterus is a rare congenital anomaly that only affects one to two percent of women. As explained in the Mayo Clinic, the uterus of the fetus begins to develop as two small tubes and then join to create the largest thin organ.
“Sometimes, however, the tubes do not join completely. Each one develops separately and with an independent structure. The double uterus may have a single cervix towards the vagina, or each uterine cavity may have a cervix. In In many cases, a thin wall of tissue occurs throughout the vagina, creating two separate cervixes. “
They also clarify that women with a double uterus tend to have normal pregnancies, although this abnormality can increase the risk of having a miscarriage or premature delivery. The problem is that it does not cause any symptoms and “can only be discovered during a routine pelvic exam or during imaging tests to determine the cause of repeated miscarriages.”
And in this case, in addition, to the unlikely case of having two uteruses, the fact of having twins or twins is added, and not discovering the double pregnancy until the moment of delivery.
Unfortunately, however, in rural Bangladesh “women do not know what is wrong with them. They do not know how many children are pregnant and sometimes they do not even know that they are pregnant,” explained Dr. SN Basu, head of OB / GYN at Max Healthcare Hospital in New Delhi.
Hopefully this situation improves soon and mothers and their children have access to all the medical advances that can save their lives.
Via | CNN News
Photos | iStock
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