A Derby couple is celebrating the recent birth of a pair of baby boys who grew in the mother's two separate uteruses. The babies were born premature at Women's and Children's Hospital this past October, but the family and doctors wanted to make sure the infants were out of medical danger before going public.
Alison Camp delivered twin boys Griffin and Carter. Camp said she's known since she was a teen about her condition called Uterine Didelphys that means her uteruses have one fallopian tube and one ovary, but she also has two cervixes.
Camps said she had already had two successful pregnancies prior..so the biggest shock was when doctors told her she was having twins.
"We were joking around that it could be two. Low and behold at 11 weeks we found out that we were having a baby in each uterus and I could not find any reports of that anywhere," said Camp.
Director of maternal and fetal medicine at Women and Children's Shalini Singh said there are approximately 75 documented cases of this happening in the world.
"What she ended up with is really rare. If you look at general population 6 or 7% of people will have uteran anomalies and nobody really even finds out," said Singh.
Singh said in most cases with uteran abnormalities a woman could experience miscarriages. Her advice is for women to get regular check-up's. If there are issues patients can go under a procedure to correct it.
The boys were born three months premature, both weighing about a pound and a half. Camp said she couldn't hold them for two months because they were so fragile.
"When the boys were born it was terrifying and now they're wonderful. One is home, so it's now just a memory," said Camp.
Camp said she has spent a lot of time in the hospital and has been blogging about her experience of being a medical mystery. Her husband, Tim Camp said the twins are the first boys to be born out of all the grand children in their family and that their arrival into the world was a miracle.
"It's been amazing to watch them grow. Carter is now 7 pounds and Griffin is 5.5 pounds, and they've really dodged every obstacle that was thrown at them," said Tim Camp.
Carter was discharged this past week, but Griffin remains hospitalized until he his able to go several days with a normal heart rate. The Camp's said they are hopeful that day will come soon.