In Bangladesh, a woman gave birth to a healthy infant boy and returned home happily. About a month later, she got the surprise of her life: she had to get back to the hospital to give birth to fraternal twins. In fact, these twins were growing within a second uterus and she was blissfully unaware of the fact. Happily, she delivered all her three babies without undergoing any complications.
Sheila Poddar, at Dhaka's Ad-Din hospital who treated the mother said that she was quite unaware of her situation. It was when she sought medical aid for pains in her lower abdomen that her doctor ordered an ultrasound scan to discern the cause of pain when her unique situation was discovered. In fact, she didn't know that she was in still in the family way with her twins.
After 26 days her waters broke once more and the first child was born that she rushed to the hospital.
Women with Two Uteruses!
Women with two uteruses are not all that uncommon. The medical term for the condition is uterus didelphys. No data is available as to how extensive this condition is because women with the condition do not experience any symptoms. However, a review published in 2011, came to the conclusion that 0.3% of females, in general, have two uteruses. Some of these women run a higher risk of complications when pregnant or at childbirth. In the case of the Bangladeshi woman, no such complications arose and the twins were delivered by a cesarean section smoothly and successfully.
Indeed, dual pregnancies have been reported from females having two wombs, one even having two cervixes. However, one thing renders this case particularly remarkable is the lack of advance notice prior to the birth of the twins. In Poddar's opinion, the cause of this mystery was human rather than that of biology. In fact, doctors didn't recommend an ultrasound scan at the time of her pregnancy. If they had they would have found the twins.
This story might seem odd, but it has some disturbing implications. Ultrasound is standard practice in hospitals and clinics in the US, but the lack of it points to the fact that the system of healthcare is wanting in countries such as Bangladesh, as well the lack of pecuniary insecurity a lot of the people face, particularly those inhabiting villages.
A Heavy Responsibility
Now that she is out of the hospital with her three infants in sound health, she is worried about the difficulties involved in raising this new addition to the family, considering her husband's low wages as menial. And though the woman and her three children were able to leave the hospital in good health, she is nevertheless worried about being able to care for her new family, given her husband's meager wages as an unskilled laborer. She is in a quandary as she doesn't know how she would handle such an immense responsibility with what little her husband earns by toiling in the fields of her village.
