Mom With TWO Wombs Gives Birth To Twin Babies
Jennifer Ashwood gave birth to her one-in-500million twins Poppy and Piran House by c-section just months after discovering she had a rare 'heart shaped' uterus.
The 31-year-old said her body has "surprised" her as there was no indication she had two wombs when she gave birth to her first child Millie, now eight.
Doctors told her it was so rare to carry a baby in each one, they didn't quite know what was going to happen until they opened her up.
Remarkably, she became pregnant with twins when one egg was released into each uterus - and they were both successfully fertilised at the same time.
Doctors told Jennifer and partner Andrew House the chances of having twins in this way was one-in-500 million.
The family are now all home in Camborne, Cornwall, and getting to grips with their two new members.
Jennifer, a care coordinator, said: "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.
"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.
"I'm 31. I've had a baby before and it was really straight forward. But my body has surprised me this time.
It's two separate uterine cavities joined by one cervix. Everything else is the same, with two fallopian tubes, one each side, each with an ovary.
"It's caused by a mid-line abnormality from when I was in the womb.
"What happened was at the time of ovulation an egg was released from each tube, one into each uterus, and both were fertilised, and both remained in each uterus.
"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."
In most cases women with the condition will only carry one baby in one uterus.
Jennifer went into early labour at 28 weeks, but her contractions were stopped with medicine, and she had a c-section on May 6.
Piran was born first at 5lb 10oz, with Poppy born minutes later weighing 5lb 3oz.
Doctors even took a photo of Jennifer's uterus' during surgery at her request, so she could see what it looked like.
It clearly shows the two uterus' with one measuring much smaller than the other.
"They had their own uterus, their own amniotic sacks, and their own placentas," she said.
"They said it was realistically like having two single pregnancies at the same time.
