Kelly Fairhurst was 28 years old and 12 weeks pregnant when she learned her pregnancy was unique. In fact, doctors found Fairhurst’s pregnancy so rare that the chance of it ever occurring is “one in 50 million.”
As The Guardian reports, Fairhurst is pregnant with twins. But unlike most mothers, who—when they are pregnant with multiples—carry their babies in the same uterus, Fairhurst as one baby in each of her uteruses.
The mom-to-be has since been diagnosed with uterus didelphys. According to the Mayo Clinic, “a double uterus is a rare congenital abnormality. In a female fetus, the uterus starts out as two small tubes.” However, in some cases, those tubes don’t join completely, and instead, each one develops into a separate structure resulting in two uteruses.
In an interview with The Sun, Fairhurst explained that “the twins could be identical. The condition itself is quite rare but they went on to tell me that it was a one in a 50 [million] chance for me to conceive twins in each womb.” Professor Asma Khalil, who is an expert in obstetrics at St George’s hospital in London, explained to The Sun how the twins could be identical if they are growing in separate wombs.
“It can happen,” she said. “The egg and sperm, at a very early stage, they split into two, so it depends which egg attaches to which uterus.”
And although Fairhurst is already a mom of two, this is the first time she’s been told she had two uteruses.
“With my second baby, they said that I might have a bicornuate uterus, which means it’s not fully formed. So when I went for this scan, I was really surprised to learn that I have two of them. I just thought, ‘God, that’s a shock.’ It makes you feel incredibly grateful that this has happened to you and you get to have two amazing babies.”
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Because both of the uteruses act independently, it’s possible for Fairhurst to endure labor two separate times. So in order to avoid any complications that could arise from enduring two labors, Fairhurst and her doctors have scheduled a cesarean section.
According to Khalil, it is estimated that uterus didelphys occurs in one in 3,000 women. Fairhurst, who already has two daughters—both of which were born weeks early, didn’t reveal what the genders of her two babies are