A Nebraska woman was born with two uteruses. To her utter shock, she got pregnant in both her uteruses at the same time and went into labor at just 22.5 weeks of gestation. According to Good Morning America, the woman delivered both her babies in her second trimester itself. The prematurely born babies weighed under a pound each. Unfortunately, one of the babies passed away. The other baby, Reese, lived and is the youngest baby born at Bryan Health in Lincoln to survive.
Megan Phipps, 24, suffers from uterine didelphy, a rare medical condition in which a woman is born with double uteruses, sometimes with a cervix for each one of them. Phipps had been pregnant twice before, without any problems. The third time, however, she found out that was pregnant with twins, one in each uterus, earlier this year.
Phipps' previous two pregnancies happened in the right uterus, because of which, she had assumed that her left uterus wasn't 'active.' However, after feeling some difficulty during her third pregnancy, she made an appointment with a specialist, who gave her the shocking news that she was pregnant in both her uteruses.
Rare case, One in 50 million
According to Scientific American, one in about every 2000 women have uterine didelphy. The odds of being pregnant in both the uteruses at the same time is even rarer, being one in 50 million. Phipps' baby Reese, who was born in June, was considered viable, which means it can live outside the womb after only 24 weeks of gestation period. According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, some babies can even survive at 22 or 23 weeks but the chances are not much, and those who do survive, almost always have a high chance of having a significant complication or disability.
'The doctor said that the babies would have 1% chance'
Phipps noted that the doctors told her the odds weren't in favor of her babies. "He [the doctor] had said that the girls would have a 1% chance," Phipps said. She, however, made herself very clear that she wanted every possible attempt to keep both her babies alive. Her first baby, Riley was born on June 11, while Reese was born the next day. Riley, however, died 12 days later.
Reese survived with a lot of medical assistance including a dozen blood transfusions and being put on a ventilator for 45 days. She was finally discharged from the hospital in November, weighing a healthy eight pounds. The baby, however, continued to struggle with health problems and had to go back to the hospital after developing metapneumovirus.
A nurse at the hospital who cared for baby Reese while in the NICU told Lincoln Journal Star that Reese is the youngest baby ever born at their hospital to survive. "She's definitely the biggest success that I have witnessed," the nurse said.
