Alabama woman gives birth to two babies in two wombs before Christmas

Some would call it a Christmas miracle: An Alabama woman who was born with two wombs gave birth to twin girls on different days.

Kelsey Hatcher learned of her condition, known as uterus didelphys, at age 17, but it would be another 15 years before it led to her one-in-a-million pregnancy. Uterus didelphys is so rare that it occurs in less than 1% of all women.

The 32-year-old and her husband Caleb Hatcher live in Dora, Alabama, outside Birmingham. The couple welcomed twin girls 10 hours apart at the University of Alabama Hospital in Birmingham, according to a press release.

Double the workload

For Hatcher, this rarity meant “double wombs, double contractions, double babies and double birthdays,” the press release said.

“One in a million”: Alabama woman expecting two babies in two wombs for Christmas

“Our miracle babies were born! They decided they were statistically rare enough to have their own birthdays too. Roxi Layla was born Tuesday evening, 12/19 at 7:49 p.m. and her sister Rebel Laken was born Wednesday morning, 12/20 at 6:09 a.m.,” Hatcher announced in an Instagram post.

In total, Hatcher was in labor for 20 hours.

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Hatcher is already a mother of three children and was not expecting any more until she found out she was pregnant in May.

“There’s only one baby in there, right?” Hatcher joked with her doctor during her first ultrasound in the eighth week.

“When she moved the ultrasound wand over my belly, I said, 'Oh my God, there's another one. Oh my God.' She said, 'Yes! There is one,'” Hatcher told TODAY. “I was just completely shocked and I think for the first, I don't know, two to three weeks, my husband and I just laughed.”

A pregnancy that only occurs once in a million

The pregnancy was “one in a million,” Dr. Richard Davis, a doctor at the hospital where Hatcher gave birth, told WVTM-TV in Alabama.

Hatcher's pregnancy is so rare that “some gynecologists never experience anything like this in their entire career,” Hatcher's gynecologist Dr. Shweta Patel previously told the news agency, calling the circumstances “very, very rare.”

Hatcher's pregnancy is a first for the team at the hospital, who are relying on “basic teaching methods and basic knowledge,” Patel told “Good Morning America.”

While twin pregnancies are not uncommon, Hatcher's pregnancy and birth are unusual because ovulation occurred separately, with each egg traveling down one side of the uterus and the sperm traveling up both sides of the uterus, fertilizing both.

“Because my cycles have always been one cycle, I assumed I was ovulating on one side … and there was no chance of having a baby in the other uterus,” Hatcher previously told USA TODAY. “I never thought I would ovulate on both at the same time.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Alabama woman with two wombs gives birth before Christmas