Mum with two uteruses welcomes twins in one in 50 million birth
A mum has revealed how doctors called her pregnancy ‘one in 50 million’ after she conceived twin boys in two separate uteruses.
Madeline Kaklikos, 24, was diagnosed with a rare condition called uterus didelphys after she and her husband Jon, 27, spent a year trying to have a baby naturally.
Uterus didelphys – where a woman is born with two uteruses – affects just 0.3% of the population. This meant that Kaklikos had both two uteruses and two cervixes.
Read more: Mum-to-be suffered burst brain tumour which forced her to give birth while in a coma
Kaklikos began IVF at the end of 2021, and after nine unsuccessful rounds with one uterus, doctors tried using her other uterus instead, which was successful.
“When I was ten weeks pregnant, we went back for another scan to check on how our miracle baby was doing,” Kaklikos explains.
During this scan, to their astonishment, the doctor told Kakliko and her husband that there was another baby showing, but that this baby was in her other uterus.
“I thought she must have been joking with us,” Kaklikos recalls. “The second baby was measuring smaller than the first, so it's suspected that we conceived another baby spontaneously the week after our transfer.
“Medics told me that this was a one in 50 million pregnancy because Nate was in one uterus and Cole was in the other, and they had also been conceived in different ways and at different times. Nate was conceived through IVF and Cole was a spontaneous pregnancy.”
Kaklikos says that she and her husband were in such shock after they were told they were having two babies, they both sat in silence for 20 minutes.
Read more: Rihanna's son's unusual name revealed – how to pick something unique for your baby
“A spontaneous pregnancy just wasn't on our radar,” she adds. “We were warned that the pregnancy would've been complicated enough with one baby, never mind two.”
However, Kaklikos says her pregnancy went ‘fairly smoothly’ as she was constantly monitored, and he waters broke when she was 34 weeks pregnant.
Read more: What is ‘quickening’ in pregnancy after Queen Charlotte scene stirs up interest?
“On February 20, our twin boys Nate and Cole were born. We couldn't believe how perfect they were. They needed to be on oxygen for a day, and they started off on feeding tubes before they were able to start having bottles.
“They're both doing so well, and we are loving life as parents to our one in 50 million twins. I wish they knew how special they really are."
