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WOMAN WITH TWO WOMBS GIVES BIRTH TO TWINS

A WOMAN born with two wombs has beaten odds of a million-to-one by giving birth to healthy twins.

Claire Miles is only one of five British women in 50 years with the condition to deliver surviving twins and one of only 70 in a century to be pregnant in both wombs. The 35-year-old has a genetic disorder that affects one in 1,000 women, meaning they are born with two separate wombs, each half normal size.

Twin pregnancies in such women are extremely rare, according to experts, and the survival of the babies is even less common. In such circumstances, the babies usually outgrow their respective wombs, stretching them to a breaking point that causes dangerous premature labour or death in the womb.

Mrs Miles, 35, and her husband, David, 34, were astonished to learn she was pregnant with twins and the story of Noah and Maisie - who may have been conceived at different times - is now to be told in a television documentary.

Mrs Miles, from Exeter, Devon, was diagnosed in her teens with the congenital disorder that is accompanied by two vaginas and two cervixes.

Surgeons altered her vagina and cervix, but the wombs had to remain separate and she was warned it was unlikely she would ever give birth.

Mrs Miles's mother, Carol, who was with her daughter when the news was broken, said she has always been confident of a "miracle".

She said: "We sat down for some time talking. Claire was upset and angry and said, 'It's not fair'.

"I told her miracles do happen. She was cross with me, but I was right. She's had two miracles."

But the mother admitted she had felt guilty about her daughter's situation.

She said: "To realise you have this little girl who had grown up and you didn't know any of this, you feel guilty. You think you should have found out, but how could you? I'd never heard of it."

However, her guilt evaporated when, shortly after Mrs Miles's wedding in September last year, she discovered she was pregnant.

Dr Bob Low, the consultant gynaecologist and pioneer of invitro fertilisation in Scotland 20 years ago, said: "Headline writers love 'miracle babies'. In this case, it's accurate."

He added: "A double live birth [in these circumstances] is extremely rare. In my 40 years in obstetrics, I've seen only a handful of such cases."

Mrs Miles's delight at being pregnant was tempered by a scan at 28 weeks in the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital.

It revealed Noah was stretching his womb, and at 29 weeks Mrs Miles' condition was further complicated when she developed a blood clot.

Soon after, she was taken into hospital with contractions in her right womb, where Noah was growing.

She said: "They took me into hospital to check the contractions. Noah was contracting but Maisie was doing nothing."

Miles Taylor, her consultant, had been hoping to deliver the twins by caesarean section at 36 weeks.

He said: "At 29 weeks they can survive, but their lungs aren't properly formed.

"There are advantages to leaving a second twin behind, but just a few hours later the other womb could go into labour and [Claire] may have had to have had another caesarean."

In the end, he was able to deliver the two babies at 36 weeks when their lungs were formed. They weighed just under 9lbs in total.

Amazingly, though Noah and Maisie were born within minutes of each other on 8 June, they are not technically twins and were probably conceived on separate occasions.

But technicalities are of no concern to their mother, who said: "I never thought I would be a mother. Now I have two miracles. It was such a shock. We had been waiting and waiting for [the birth] to happen."

Noah weighed in at 4lb 15oz and Maisie arrived at 4lb 13oz.

The children were in intensive care for two days before their mother was able to hold them. Mrs Miles said: "It was incredibly difficult. I saw all the other mothers with their babies and I didn't have mine.

"My first cuddle was with my daughter. It was amazing, I felt every emotion possible.

Dr Low added: "A successful live birth of two wee mites in such circumstances is a million-to-one shot. But paediatrics is so advanced today we can closely monitor babies."