UK teenager Ebony Stevenson fell into a four-day coma after going to bed with a severe headache.
She’d become sick and began having seizures. She was rushed to hospital and just over three hours later, doctors performed an emergency caesarean.
When she woke up, the 18-year-old discovered she had given birth to a baby girl.
Her illness was caused by preeclampsia, but Ebony didn’t even know she was pregnant. She was still menstruating, had no morning sickness and hadn’t grown a bump.
This was because she had a condition called uterus didelphys, meaning she had two uteri.
Her baby was hidden in one uterus, which was positioned towards her back and meant no obvious baby bump. Ebony didn’t miss a period, because her menstrual cycle continued in the other uterus.
It’s a rare condition, occurring in approximately one in 3000 women according to gynaecologist and fertility expert Dr Sonya Jessup.
Dr Jessup told Mamamia it is an uncommon abnormality of the uterus and sometimes also the cervix and vagina.
“In a female foetus, the uterus develops when two mullerin ducts (two parallel tubes) fuse and the middle portion disappears to create a uterus. With this process women end up with one uterus, one cervix, one vagina and two ovaries.
“In some women this process fails to happen in the usual manner. There are many different variations of uterine abnormality ranging from a heart shaped uterus to a situation where a woman may have two uteri, two cervices, and a double vagina.”