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Rinku Devi, Indian Woman With Two Wombs, Gives Birth To Twins (PHOTOS)

Woman Birth

First Posted: 08/09/11 10:31 AM ET Updated: 10/09/11 06:12 AM ET

In the age of fertility treatments, twins are more common than ever. But a pair of babies born to a woman in the village of Mathurapur Chakiya in West Champaran, India, on July 29, really beat the odds.

That's because their mother, Rinku Devi, 28, has two uteruses and conceived her kids, both boys, at different times, something that experts claim has a one-in-50-million chance of happening.

The medical condition of having two uteruses in one body is known as uterus didelphys and reportedly affects less than 100 women around the world, according to India Today.

Doctors say uterus didelphys represents a uterine malformation, where the uterus is present as a paired organ. In most cases, the women are not even aware of the condition. Chances of miscarriage, premature labor and underweight babies are high in such pregnancies.

Dr. Singh, who delivered the babies by Caesarean section, said both Devi and the babies were doing fine, something that, again, isn't that common.

"It's very rare," she said. "In most cases, the babies die."

The surgery took about an hour and the boys, whose names have not been announced, weighed 3 pounds, 3 ounces and 4 pounds, 4 ounces, respectively, according to Barcroft Media.

Although Devi will have twice as much work handling two babies, Dr. Singh says they can't be officially called "twins" since one of the brothers was actually in utero three weeks longer.

"It means Rinku conceived at different times," she said, adding that unlike some other women born with a similar condition, she did not have two vaginas.

In fact, Devi only found out about her unusual condition when she was in labor, even though she had delivered her first baby four years ago.

"Since she carried only one child in one uterus at that time, it was not detected by doctors then," Dipti said.

Naturally, having this sprung on her while going through childbirth was intense to say the least.

"I got to know about having two uteruses when I was already in labor pain," she said to Metro.co.uk. "I didn’t know how to react. I was in pain and quite scared. I had not heard of anything like this before."

Neither had her family and they were understandably freaked out by the diagnosis.

"They were initially worried when I told them about my condition but they heaved a sigh a relief after the delivery," she said.

However, Dr. Serena Chen, the director of the Reproductive Endocrine and Infertility department at St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, New Jersey, is skeptical that the babies were conceived three weeks apart.

"The chance that a healthy fertile woman has a double uterus is about one in 3000," she told HuffPost Weird News. "It is extremely unlikely that these babies were conceived a month apart. And the statement that the doctors discovered that the babies were conceived a month apart during labor makes no sense."

Chen says in order to "truly know" the conception dates the doctors would have needed document that at the very early stages of pregnancy.

"Even then, many twins are discordant -- of different sizes," she said. "Size does not always equal gestational age, especially when more than one baby is involved."

The doctor says once ovulation occurs and pregnancy is established, the hormone progesterone suppresses ovulation such that releasing an egg one month later is extremely unlikely.

She says the most likely scenario is still quite unusual.

"It's possible this woman released one egg from each ovary during the same month," Chen said. "The twins may be different sizes because of individual factors.

"Perhaps one uterus is smaller than the other, has less of a blood supply and so affected the growth of the smaller twin. She has a previous pregnancy so the uterus that carried the previous pregnancy is probably much larger."

Still, double pregancies like Devi's are exceptionally rare, but, even so, there have been very few cases of "double pregnancies" across the world in recent years.

Last year, Angie Cromer, 3, a nurse from Murray, Utah, suffered from the same condition and delivered a boy and a girl.
Like Devi's sons, they were not twins because they were conceived at different times.

In 2009, Sarah Reinfelder, 21, from Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, gave birth to two premature babies through a similar condition and she says Devi has her work cut out for her.

"My advice to her would be to get them on a routine as soon as possible," Reinfelder told HuffPost Weird News. "Try to keep them together -- especially naps -- so you can have little breaks. Even so, I'll be praying for her."

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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Helen Greenfeld
"There is Nothing New Under the Sun"
08:43 AM on 08/30/2011
WOW! Even though his has 6 fingers his hands look totally normal. That's wonderful :)
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
nicko68
10:22 AM on 08/12/2011
Her husband carries her around like a six-pack
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Denisehh3
redneckislandgirl
07:10 PM on 08/10/2011
Two little miracles.......how precious they are.......
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GraniteSkyline
I wish you happiness!
11:43 AM on 08/10/2011
I just realized--2 uteri, twice the pain. Good thing they were born by C section!
11:22 PM on 08/10/2011
More like a "K" section perhaps!

I don't know about the double uteri gals, but the dub vagina girls apparently have one HELLUVA case of PMS, when that time comes around.

It's all on youtube...

Sounds like a good name for a pop band - THE DUBBY 'GIN GALS!
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GraniteSkyline
I wish you happiness!
11:42 AM on 08/10/2011
She should become a surrogate and start banging them out left and right.
09:13 PM on 08/10/2011
That's axually pretty funny!
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
edejan
01:10 AM on 08/10/2011
When I was younger, my BFF, her sister and her mother all had this condition. I didn't realize it was so rare.
11:18 PM on 08/10/2011
Growing up with all those people having "this condition", I wouldn't think it was "so rare" either!

Musta been a party at the "double uterus" gene pool that conception day...
08:38 PM on 08/09/2011
RE: ""...Rinku conceived at different times," ...unlike some other women born with a similar condition, she did not have two vaginas."

Get me that woman with the two vaginas!!!
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GraniteSkyline
I wish you happiness!
11:41 AM on 08/10/2011
Get me the guy with two dikks--I want to make him a p0rn star!
09:10 PM on 08/10/2011
Actually, there are quite a few cases believe it or not, of guys with 2 penises, and MORE! Girls with 2 vaginas AND girls with NO VAGINA AT ALL!!

Never seen 'em in p0rn though...
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Passenger57
Keeping Calm And Carrying On...
12:03 PM on 08/09/2011
I always thought "twins" came about by one egg splitting in half. This woman has two uteruses and one baby in each. If anything, the woman's WOMB is the "twin"...
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GraniteSkyline
I wish you happiness!
11:40 AM on 08/10/2011
Those would be identical twins. Fraternal twins are separate eggs that mature and are fertilized in the same time.
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Passenger57
Keeping Calm And Carrying On...
07:34 AM on 08/11/2011
Yeah, but wouldn't this woman having two children in seperate wombs be a special case? I think she's almost like two women in one body, each having one child...
09:12 PM on 08/10/2011
That amounts to a separate pair of sperm and egg for each womb - two completely different people.

They're not even 'womb mates'!
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GraniteSkyline
I wish you happiness!
09:56 PM on 08/10/2011
You are so funny! Why no fans? Are you against fans?
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Passenger57
Keeping Calm And Carrying On...
07:35 AM on 08/11/2011
LOL! I wonder if the kids will remember having living with someone "next door" before they were even born...!