A US woman gave birth to two babies in one year, each of whom grew in her two uteruses. The 30-year-old Caroline Wortman found out she was nearly ten weeks pregnant with Brooks, her second child, barely six months after her first daughter, Josie was born.
After being diagnosed with uterine didelphys, which means having two reproductive systems, Caroline was informed that she could be sterile but later told that she can be fertile. Caroline became pregnant with Josie after seven months of trying and found out she was pregnant again barely six months after the firstborn. According to her first ultrasound, another foetus was developing in the other uterus.
The uterus starts out as two tiny tubes called Müllerian ducts while an embryo is growing. In a process known as embryogenesis, they will eventually fuse together to form the reproductive system. Women with uterine didelphys do not go through full embryogenesis and can be born with two uteruses.
Caroline was 18 when she had her first session with a gynaecologist, who told her she had two uterus. The diagnosis had little impact on her life, but everything changed when she met her current husband Nate Daniel Wortman when she was 23. Caroline eventually told him about her uterine didelphysis. The couple get married in September 2019 and quickly started trying for a family.
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Caroline went out for a job on April 25, 2020, but had to halt since she felt odd and out of breath. She realised her period was a few days late, so she used a pregnancy test she had purchased months before. The joyful pair consulted a doctor, and they learned she was seven weeks pregnant.
The part of her uterus that wasn’t carrying her daughter was simply pushed aside as she developed, and Josie Magnolia Wortman was born a healthy six pounds on January 2, 2021.
Caroline began to feel nauseated while out at lunch with her parents the following June, after a joyful six months as a family of three. The couple had not been trying for a second baby, but at her next appointment, Caroline found that she was already ten weeks pregnant and the baby was growing in her other uterus.
Her pregnancy was normal, but she went into labour at 33 weeks and 5 days, and by the time she arrived at the hospital, she was fully dilated. Brooks Daniel Hayes Wortman was born on Christmas Day 2021, weighing just 5lbs 5oz, and spent nine days in the NICU. Caroline feels his premature birth was caused due to her cervix dilating early, a common consequence of uterine didelphys.
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