A woman from Bangladesh has given birth to twins just 26 days after delivering a baby boy.
Arifa Sultana Iti, the 20-year-old Bangladeshi mother, was rushed to hospital on March 22 with stomach pains less than a month after she had given birth prematurely to a baby boy. There, she delivered twins (a boy and a girl) by emergency caesarean, where it was also discovered she had two wombs.
Arifa had given birth to her baby boy in February, but on March 22 she was rushed back to hospital with lower abdominal pain.
Doctors performed an ultrasound and realised Arifa was pregnant with twins, and that she had two uteruses. Arifa had never had an ultrasound before, which is why the second womb and pregnancy hadn’t been picked up earlier.
The presence of a double uterus , which is known as uterus didelphys, is rare.
Women often experience no symptoms but the condition does carry a higher chance of complications with pregnancy including infertility, miscarriage and premature birth, making it unusual that Arifa carried not one, but two pregnancies.
An expert explained “[It’s likely that] three eggs ovulated and were fertilised at the same time during her fertile period which resulted in three embryos.”
The Gynaecologist who performed the emergency caesarean, Dr Sheila Poddar told the BBC that hospital staff were “very shocked and surprised” when an ultrasound revealed twin babies. “I have never observed something like this before.”
Doctors at Khulna Medical College hospital, where the first baby boy was delivered, have been criticised for not identifying the presence of a second womb and pregnancy.
All three babies are reportedly healthy, however there are concerns about how the family will cope financially, as they come from a poorer rural district of India.
Arifa told media, “I don’t know how we will manage such a huge responsibility with this little amount.”
Her husband said, “It was a miracle from Allah that all of my children are healthy. I will try my best to keep them happy.”
