A woman has given birth to three babies a month apart because she has a rare condition called a bicornuate uterus.
This is a case that has only been recorded 70 times in the world… This mother with a bicornuate uterus became pregnant in her two wombs at the same time ! It all started last month, when the young woman was unaware of her malformation. Arifa Sultana, a 20-year-old woman living in Bangladesh, gave birth to a premature baby boy in February. Until then, nothing surprising… But 26 days later, she is forced to return to the hospital. When she thought she had stomach pains, the doctors discovered that she was expecting twins in a second womb!
A very rare case
“When the patient arrived, we did an ultrasound, and that revealed that there were twins. We were very shocked and surprised. I had never seen anything like that,” explains Sheila Poddar, the gynecologist who treated her, at the BBC.
In order to limit the risks for the mother and the children, they then perform an emergency caesarean section. But how did the mother not know that she was expecting three children ? It turns out that the mother, from a modest background, had never had an ultrasound before. The twins could therefore not have been discovered… Fortunately, the three children, two boys and a girl, are doing well.
What is a bicornuate uterus?
The malformation that affects this woman, the bicornuate uterus or “didelphus uterus”, means that there is a separation of the cavity of the uterus in two. Women with this malformation therefore have two wombs and two vaginas. It is estimated that 1 to 2% of women are affected.
The bicornuate uterus cannot be discovered by a classic gynecological examination, but in France and in developed countries, we have the means to detect it. Nevertheless, having two uteri increases the risk of miscarriages or premature delivery. In addition, it can cause problems to get pregnant: the egg can run out of space or have trouble clinging to the mucous membrane.
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