This post is one of those oversharing posts that people are
going to be fascinated or weirded out by…hopefully the former rather than the latter. It is also a way to share another aspect of my life that many people don't talk about...probably because most people have never heard about it!
Four years ago during a routine annual pelvic exam, a poor military resident doctor (who didn’t know what he was getting himself into), discovered
that I had a crazy uterine anomaly called Uterine Didelphys.
Now since uterine anomalies are not in your usual high school
anatomy textbook, here’s a rundown of Uterine Didelphys…basically, when I was
forming inside the womb, my female reproductive system didn’t meld into one
total unit, but stayed partially separated.
This means that rather than one uterus and one cervix, I have two of
each---two uteri and two cervices. Mind blown, yet?
Believe me, this is not news anyone expects when going in
for your annual pap smear (especially when it’s not your first!).
Of course, when people hear that I have Uterine Didelphys, I
always get the usual questions:
Could you get pregnant in BOTH uteri? (Yes, but it is
super rare)
Which uterus is the baby in? (The right one! The left one
just gets smashed down and pushed out of the way now that Baby Girl is taking up
all the space)
What problems come with having two uteri? (Higher risk of
miscarriage, early labor, baby is breech)
And as weird as this anomaly is, the doctors don’t think
that Uterine Didelphys is what affected our fertility or why it took us so long
to get pregnant.
Currently for the Sir and I, our
biggest concern about how this condition may affect me during labor, is that
a c-section may be needed if my right cervix decides it doesn’t want to dilate
properly. Thankfully, baby girl has cooperated through all of the other pregnancy concerns, and will not be born early (I'm 37 1/2 weeks today!) and is head down already.
So once again, we are asking for prayers for me and my baby
girl----that my unique body reacts like it should during labor and that both of us
come out of the whole birth process healthy and happy (and that the Sir is not
emotionally traumatized for life).
Because sooner rather than later, someone will be handing me a baby!
