Woman with two wombs gives birth twice in two days
A woman with a rare double uterus has given birth twice in two days.
Medical phenomenon Kelsey Hatcher, from Alabama in the US, was born with two functional uteri that each have their own cervix.
After falling pregnant in both wombs – described as a one-in-a-million occurence – Mrs Hatcher has now given birth to two daughters after spending 20 hours in labour at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Hospital.
Pic: UAB/Andrea Mabry
One girl, Roxi, was born on Tuesday evening, while sister Rebel arrived the following morning, some 10 hours later.
“Never in our wildest dreams could we have planned a pregnancy and birth like this; but bringing our two healthy baby girls into this world safely was always the goal, and UAB helped us accomplish that,” Mrs Hatcher said in a statement released by the hospital.
“It seems appropriate that they had two birthdays, though. They both had their own ‘houses,’ and now both have their own unique birth stories.”
Mrs Hatcher was diagnosed with a double uterus – also known as uterus didelphys – when she was 17. It is a rare congenital anomaly that occurs in just 0.3% of women.
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Kelsey Hatcher before she gave birth
‘You’re lying’
Mrs Hatcher was already a mum-of-three before her latest pregnancies, but had never been pregnant in both wombs before.
After finding out she was pregnant again in the spring and completing her initial ultrasound, she shared the exciting news with her husband Caleb.
She recalled telling him: “I said, ‘Well, there’s two of them in there’. And he said, ‘You’re lying’. I said, ‘No, I’m not’.”
While it is not as uncommon for women with a double uterus to have a pregnancy with one baby in one uterus, having a baby in both – also known as a dicavitary pregnancy – is an estimated one-in-a-million chance, according to studies of the phenomenon.
Pic: UAB and Andrea Mabry
Ms Hatcher’s obstetrician, Dr Shweta Patel, told NBC affiliate WVTM that the pregnancy was “very, very rare”, adding: “Some obstetrician-gynaecologists go their whole careers without seeing anything like this.”
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Because of its uniqueness, the pregnancy was considered high-risk.
Dr Richard Davis, a specialist in high-risk pregnancies at the University of Alabama, said: “A double cervix or double uterus is way under 1%, maybe three per 1,000 women might have that.”
Are they actually twins?
With two wombs and two birthdays, it’s a complicated question, according to Dr Patel and and Professor Davis.
“Technically, yes and no,” they explain, as a typical twin pregnancy is defined by two babies in one uterus at the same time.
While Kelsey had one baby in each uterus, two eggs were released that were fertilised during the same ovulation cycle.
“I think it is safe to call the girls fraternal twins,” Professor Davis said. “At the end of the day, it was two babies in one belly at the same time. They just had different apartments.”
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
A farmer who fell from a greenhouse roof during an anti-immigrant raid at a licensed cannabis facility in California this week has died of his injuries.
Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first person to die as a result of Donald Trump’s Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) raids.
His niece, Yesenia Duran, posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe to say her uncle was his family’s only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to his wife and daughter in Mexico.
The United Food Workers said Mr Alanis had worked on the farm for 10 years.
“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorise American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,” the union said in a recent statement on X.
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it executed criminal search warrants at Glass House Farms facilities on Thursday.
Mr Alanis called family to say he was hiding and possibly fleeing agents before he fell around 30ft (9m) from the roof and broke his neck, according to information from family, hospital and government sources.
Agents arrested 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally and identified at least 10 immigrant children on the sites, the DHS said in a statement.
Mr Alanis was not among them, the agency said.
“This man was not in and has not been in CBP (Customs and Border Protection) or ICE custody,” DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said.
“Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30ft. CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.”
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Four US citizens were arrested during the incident for allegedly “assaulting or resisting officers”, the DHS said, and authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents.
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In a statement, Glass House, a licensed Cannabis grower, said immigration agents had valid warrants. It said workers were detained and it is helping provide them with legal representation.
“Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,” it added.
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