Last week, Australian media reported the birth story of a pregnant woman, which caused heated discussions.
The 24-year-old woman, Madeline Kaklikos, gave birth to twin sons in February.
Well? It's not unusual to have twins, right? In fact, the twins born to Madeleine are not twins in the traditional sense.
Generally, twins are the birth of identical twins or fraternal twins in the same pregnancy.
But Madeleine's two babies, one through artificial insemination and the other through natural pregnancy, and the two embryos were implanted in her two wombs until birth. Her doctor said that probability was one in 50 million.
Yes, you read that right, Madeleine has double uterus, double cervix, and suffers from a rare gynaecological defect called "Uterus didelphys". The patient has two completely separated uteruses, separate uterine bodies, cervix, each with its own fallopian tubes, ovaries, etc.
(Source: Cleveland Clinic)
In an interview with the media, Madeleine told her story of her past few years from trying to get pregnant, being diagnosed with double uterine malformations, undergoing multiple rounds of artificial reproductive treatment, and then to pregnancy and childbirth.
Madeleine married before the pandemic, her profession is a social worker, her husband is an electrician, and the couple lives in Melbourne, Australia.
In 2020, Madeleine began to prepare for pregnancy, but she was unable to conceive. However, she was actually mentally prepared for this, because when she was 18 years old, she was diagnosed with PCOS, or polycystic ovary syndrome.
(Source: TCFDEC)
Polycystic ovary syndrome is a common endocrine disease in women, manifested as irregular menstruation, hirsutism, acne, anovulation, etc., which is easy to cause infertility problems.
So Madeleine finally decided to go for a comprehensive examination, thinking about treating polycystic first, and then starting ovulation induction and her husband trying to conceive naturally.
(Madeleine and husband Jon)
Who knew that the first major examination in her life would solve another key mystery why she had difficulty getting pregnant: Madeleine had two uteruses and cervix, and was a double uterine malformation. There are fewer statistics on cases of this double uterine malformation, but according to data from relevant studies in the United States, the proportion of the population is about 0.1-0.5%.
(Source: BFI left normal uterus, right double uterus)
Madeleine told reporters: "Originally, I had multiple cysts, coupled with such a rare situation as double uterus, I was worried and a little desperate. On the advice of a doctor, Madeleine and her husband decided to try artificial insemination, implanting artificially grown embryos into one of their own uteruses.
Because of polycystic ovary syndrome + double uterine malformation, Madeleine's pregnancy is extremely difficult. From 2021, she and her husband went through ten rounds of IVF procedures, the first nine failed.
(Source: News Medical, illustration of the IVF process)
She told reporters that by the eighth round, she had completely lost confidence and began to accept the fact that she would not be able to conceive and have a baby in her life. By the time the ninth round was done and failed, she and her husband were already very devastated.
Who would have thought that in June 2022, after the tenth round of artificial insemination, the doctor called Madeleine to congratulate her on the successful implantation of embryos implanted in one of her uteruses, and Madeleine successfully became pregnant.
"I, my husband, my parents and brother, the family shouted and cried with excitement and hugged each other."
She went for a pregnancy test, heard the child's heartbeat for the first time, and waited excitedly for the baby's birth. Who knows, when the pregnancy test was again in the tenth week, the ultrasound doctor suddenly quieted down, and Madeleine recalled: "I was panicked, afraid of something. ”
As a result, Madeleine's husband, who was accompanying him, was quite keen, heard what seemed to be more than one heartbeat, and asked the doctor what was going on.
Unexpectedly, the uterus on the other side of Madeleine also had a slightly smaller embryo that had successfully implanted, and it already had a heartbeat. Both sides of her womb were pregnant with a baby: "I was stunned, my husband's face was scared white, I thought the doctor was joking." ”
It turned out that by the time the tenth round of artificial insemination was achieved, Madeleine and her husband's mentality had collapsed, and although the doctor reminded them not to live as a couple, they broke the jar and broke, thinking "I can't get pregnant casually anyway". So I just finished artificial insemination the week before, and the two had sex the next week.
This unintentional move of artificial insemination and then natural conception finally allowed the two to have two babies. Madeleine's double uterus, pregnant with twins, or through two conception methods, different time periods, according to doctors, the probability of this is one in 50 million.
However, due to the complexity of Madeleine's twin pregnancy, her entire pregnancy was not all smooth sailing, and several doctors advised her to be safe and reduce the number of children. But Madeleine eventually chose to keep the two babies, survived until 34 weeks, and had a caesarean section.
On February 20, 2023, Madeleine gave birth to an unusual pair of twins.
Because they were born prematurely, the two brothers lived in an incubator for 17 days at birth. At present, the two babies, who are 3 months old, are in good health.
Madeleine said: "The first time I held them when they were discharged from the hospital, my heart was about to jump out of my chest, and this is what it feels like to be a mother. ”
Both Madeleine and her husband said that they would raise the "miracle baby" with their hearts, and would later tell the brothers that they were a special baby of one in 50 million.
It is indeed rare to have a pregnancy in both wombs like Madeleine, with only over a hundred cases recorded worldwide.
Some women who are pregnant with twins even give birth to one first and give birth to another one in a few days.
For example, in 2004, Maricia Tescu of Romania conceived twins with two uteruses, the first baby was born on December 11, and the second baby was born in February 2005, that is, 59 days later.
There are also women with double uterus who are pregnant with the rarer triplets.
For example, in 2006, Hannah Kersey, England, in order to increase her chance of conception, doctors implanted embryos in her two uteruses, but did not expect that both embryos were successfully implanted, and one of the embryos naturally divided into identical twins.
(Triplets are all girls)
There is also the pregnant woman named Arifa Sultana reported by the Bangladeshi media in 2019, and the situation is also quite amazing.
In February of that year, she gave birth to a son through natural birth and returned home. As a result, 26 days later, because of abdominal discomfort, she sought medical attention again, and the doctor did a comprehensive examination and found that she still had a baby in her stomach, and finally an emergency cesarean section ushered in a pair of dragon and phoenix fetuses.
According to reports, because Arisa is in a rural area, she has not done any pregnancy and prenatal examinations, not even a B ultrasound before the first birth, so she does not know that she is pregnant with three children, let alone have a double uterine malformation. Fortunately, although the three children are skinny and small, they are all healthy.
Back to Madeleine's news, she has two uteruses and gave birth to two babies through artificial and natural conception After the news came out, netizens were hotly discussed:
"Wow, great news, I wish this mom and baby health!"
"Best wishes!"
"Congratulations!"
Some netizens also left sharp messages:
"My wife only has one uterus, and menstruation is painful every month, it's hard to imagine a woman with two uteruses..."
And this one:
"Long insight..."
The body of a woman who gives birth to life is really amazing!