A GEORGIA woman gave birth to two babies in one year as each grew in one of her two uteruses.
Caroline Wortman suffers from a rare condition called uterine didelphys, meaning she was born with two reproductive systems - and two uteruses.
“Having children was always something I knew I wanted, but I just tried to stay positive and not dwell too much on it," she said.
“Infertile was the story that I told myself for ten years.”
But her story quickly changed with the two pregnancies within a matter of months.
Wortman first got pregnant after trying for a few months after her late 2019 wedding to her husband, Nate Daniel Wortman.
She gave birth to baby girl Josie on January 2, 2021.
Just six months after giving birth to her daughter, Wortman discovered she was ten weeks pregnant with another baby.
At her first ultrasound, it was revealed that her second child, a boy, was growing in her other uterus.
"The baby was small enough each time to see the other uterus and confirm which side the baby was in - Josie was in the right, Brooks was in the left," she said.
While pregnancies with uterine didelphys can lead to serious complications, Wortman had a normal pregnancy. But she gave birth at just 33 weeks and five days.
Her son, Brooks Daniel Hayes Wortman, was born on December 26, 2021.
Premature birth is often a complication for women with uterine didelphys.
“I don’t remember really coming across any relatable stories with my specific diagnosis during my pregnancy, so I hope this can be that to at least one woman," Wortman said.
Uterine didelphys is a rare condition that some women are born with. As an embryo grows, the uterus starts out as two small tubes. Eventually, they should fuse together to form the reproductive system. But in some women they do not fuse, resulting in two separate uteruses.
Wortman found out she had uterine didelphys after a gynecological exam at 18 years old.
She recalls asking the doctor what it meant and remembers "her telling me that I may be infertile and if I did become pregnant, it would likely be complicated and high risk."
Wortman has shared her story on TikTok, receiving more than 930,000 views in hopes of raising awareness of fertility issues.
“Being infertile and thinking you will be infertile are two drastically different things, but I would just encourage women to not give up if they want to become mothers, and to not take a doctor’s words as the be all and end all," Wortman said.
“For women with my specific diagnosis I just hope that this is one story that they can turn to and say ‘look, this girl was told no and she had two healthy babies in one year'."
