A woman with two uteruses only found out she had multiple uteruses when she was pregnant with her second child – after doctors missed it the first time.
Hayley Scudder, 34, was told her condition is so rare that the odds are one in a million, so she now refers to her double uterus as “limited edition”.
Hayley, who is from Stockport, Manchester, had never had any symptoms to suggest she had two wombs and always had light periods.
Sonographers had found nothing unusual when she was pregnant with her first son Logan, 12, but when she had an internal scan at 12 weeks with her second child, George, now 7 , doctors made the discovery.
“In May before George was born, they discovered the second uterus when they did my internal scan,” said Hayley, who is a full-time carer.
“It must have been almost impossible to conceive naturally – I was very emotional for a long period of time as I was very grateful.
“Apparently, I should have needed IVF to get pregnant. The doctors were shocked – they sent about 15 nurses and doctors inside. It was like I was famous! Everyone said they had never seen it before.
“I was told I could have been pregnant at the same time in separate wombs – so say I was six months along with George, then I could have been pregnant with the second. I’m glad that didn’t happen!”
Hayley’s first child was born six weeks early with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck and spent four days in the NICU.
“He came out not breathing and the cord wrapped around his neck twice and he had to go to the NICU – I shouldn’t have been allowed to have him but we didn’t know about the second uterus at this point.” she said.
“I conceived Logan in the small womb and therefore he was born six weeks early, as there was no room for him. He was in the NICU for four days, but he went on to make a full recovery.”
With George “Hayley’s second natural pregnancy, against the odds” things were going well until she started bleeding.
“That’s how they found out because they did an internal scan on me,” she said. “They told me I would probably have been born with it. I didn’t believe it, I had to google it. However, I feel like I’m really lucky after seeing all the complications I could have gone through.
“When I got to the hospital they said there was no one qualified to deliver him naturally and they said if he had delivered naturally he could have broken his neck because of the limited space.
“Because there is a wall between the two uteruses, they have offered to remove it to make one whole. But if it doesn’t affect my body, then I don’t want to mess with it. My periods are always light and I find myself really lucky.
“Apparently, it’s like one in a million, they say – ‘I call it limited edition!’
Hayley has said she has no plans for more children and, barring double Pap tests, her two bellies aren’t causing her any problems.
“I have to have regular smear tests – one on each cervix, so they do them regularly. Apparently, when it comes to me going into menopause, I’m really going to feel twice as bad!” she said.
“I don’t think I will have any more children. I consider myself lucky to have had what I have, so why mess with it?”
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