A story happened of a woman who, in 2012, was expectant and her water broke unexpectedly in the fifth month. This goes without saying that the baby was to come out prematurely. At five months, the baby is usually 8 to 10 inches with a weight of about 0.5 kg. Internal organs are also beginning to mature at this point. By all means, in case the baby comes out of the mother’s womb, it ought to be placed in an incubator for continuous growth. The baby was hence placed in a high-level incubator.
This lady was carrying twins. As the first baby was placed in an incubator, the second twin remained in the womb and continued to develop normally till when the pregnancy attained its full term. She gave birth to her second normal child via normal delivery. Between the birth of the pre-term fetus and the full-term baby, there was a difference in 88 days. The woman walked out of the hospital with her fully healthy twins – one from the incubator and one from the womb.
Such a condition is a rare congenital abnormality called uterus didelphys which means a woman has a double uterus. In a female, the uterus starts as two small tubes. As the fetus develops, the tubes normally join to create one larger hollow organ – the uterus. Sometimes, though, the tubes don’t join completely, and instead, each one develops into a separate structure. The odds of such pregnancies where twins develop in separate wombs of the same mother are one in 50 million but they have happened anyway. In 2009, a woman in Michigan delivered two girls weeks apart. In 2014, another woman in the UK gave birth to triplets, two of whom shared a uterus and one had its own, weeks apart.
Cara Winhold, a lady from the United Kingdom, had had three devastating miscarriages in the past and was now on her fourth pregnancy hoping it would go well. While in the hospital, the sonographer approached her rather excitedly. Not only did her baby have a strong fetal heartbeat at 7 weeks, but she also had a second fetus. Each of these fetuses was in separate amniotic sacs.
Such a phenomenon is called superfetation. Superfetation is when a second pregnancy implants a few weeks or days after an initial pregnancy occurs and this is usually an extremely rare happening.
It is rare because once pregnancy occurs, hormones are released by the woman’s body to prevent further ovulation and a thick mucus is created at the cervix to prevent any further sperm from entering the uterus at that time. Cara eventually delivered her sons one week apart.
Another woman in Florida, due to superfetation, gave birth to her first set of twin boys in March of 2020 and her second set in December of the same year. Her doctor had told her that she had better chances of winning the lottery than having two sets of twins in the same year. Her first set of twins was in the same sac sharing a placenta while the second set of twins each had their sac.
Scientists call it superfetation and uterus didelphys but I call it modern-day miracles. Each of these kids born in such manners develops to become healthy and intelligent children.
“God creates twins when he makes a face he really likes.”