December 21, 2006

Triplets born to UK woman with two wombs: no, this isn't a Monty Python sketch

This is apparently the first time triplets have been born this way. Apparently, the condition known as uterus didelphys is rather common in the UK, and is present in as many as 1 in 1000 women (!). I'd never heard of it before today. Apparently thanks to technology like MRI this is no longer a serious threat to mother or baby(ies!). Kind of neat, I'm thinking.

posted by zorgon 18 years ago
  • I tried to come up with a sarky comment, but I just don;t have the heart. I'm just happy they're all OK, and that all the girls were born alive.
  • Amazing, isn't it? I've never heard of it, either. And even with the diagrams and whatnot, I don't totally get it. Also, what adorable little babies!
  • First of all, ouch. Imagine the contractions! Two uteri means two labours, both at once. Actually, I wonder if both labours began at once. The wombs have separate cervixes (cervices?) so I assume everything would be twice as laboury. I don't see in the article whether she gave birth naturally -- but if the diagram is accurate then she was probably very lucky to have all three babies positioned correctly. Secondly, I can't possibly imagine being 23 and suddenly a mother of three infants. Good luck to her and her partner..
  • trac, the article sez she got caesarians.
  • well, probably just one....
  • I want the right to have babies.
  • was it a womb with a view, then?
  • The fact that this is common is just WRONG! *four kids, one womb--lordy, ain't I done my share already
  • In the newsroom in what I work, we were wondering if we should headline this story "Womb for one more?" Thankfully, we didn't. But we did have the scan showing them all in the womb, which the BBC don't have, so ha.
  • Oooh, flashboy, neat. Link? *my FPP-fu needs improvement, obviously*
  • Can't believe I missed that, Medusa.
  • I feel so bad for this woman -- it's great that the kids and her are ok, but to go through the rest of your life being known as "the woman with two wombs"... Not that there's anything wrong with having two wombs, it's just not anybody's business but her own.
  • I know a woman who has this condition, and it was actually really hard for her to conceive and keep a pregnancy, which makes me find this woman's situation even more amazing. She eventually ended up having two healthy kids (separately!).
  • The condition, which is actually called uterus didelphys, affects one in 1,000 women in the UK. Now these stats always amuse me - there must be thousands of these sort of conditions which affect "one in 1,000" men/women. Does that mean we've all got one, or do some people have lots of these conditions????
  • yeah, a friend's sister has this dy-whatever uterus thing, which also made it more difficult for her to conceive and she was considered "high-risk" preg/delivery. she had a cute little son (just one) 3 years ago, no prob :)
  • I'm thinking we can hook up this gal with a guy who has this little anomaly.
  • Heather's Mommy Has Two Uteruses
  • I'm thinking we can hook up this gal with a guy who has this little anomaly. My testes are not orchids. Thank you very much
  • Debaser--marigolds? So if she gets a hysterectomy, she can still get preggers? *still shuddering at the thought of two
  • Well, my testes are orchids. Sweaty, hairy orchids, but orchids nonetheless.
  • Am I reading this correctly that the condition is common in the UK meaning not necessarily so common elsewhere? And if that's so, then WTF?
  • Am I reading this correctly that the condition is common in the UK meaning not necessarily so common elsewhere? Oh great, another American monowomb complaining about his singularity of womb. Yeah we got more wombs cause we be better than you. You goddam uni-ute.
  • They got the Wombles. Now get homble.
  • Underneath, over - many wombs can you see? The wombles of wimbledon common have three But making best use of the wombs that they store The tombles of tooting bec common have four Combles are have even more - this will surprise! Yes the combles from old clapham common have five. To only have a single womb would be obscene The wandles of dear wandsworth common have four thousand and seventeen
  • ... combles are have ...
  • My single womb a singularity does possess From which no light nor life may egress.
  • Better warn your gynaecologist about that event horizon...
  • Nurse sharks have two wombs. But then, they start with twenty babies to each womb, and then only birth the ones that remain after the babies eat each other In THE WOMB. There can only be one. Per womb. Nature just slays me.
  • that is COOL. 20 embryos enter the womb....ONE EMBRYO LEAVES!
  • Turkey Baster runs Barter Town.
  • medusa -- I am going to pitch that to the friend I have who is well-connected in Hollywood. I am thinking that it is going to have to be CGI, though.
  • maybe we should talk to those Nemo people?
  • Similar to the nurse shark, The Werzog was originally a quintuplet but ate his four sisters in utero because he wasn't going to share a damn womb with a bunch or damn girls, dammit. In an odd coincidence, he was then nursed by a nurse shark.
  • I am working on a title to pitch this thing... Embryo Embricide The Sperminator Enter the Womb Womb Raider ...And Then There Was Womb
  • Not the obvoious "Beyond Thunderwomb"?