Woman with two vaginas and a double womb defies odds to give birth to ‘miracle’ baby

A woman born with two wombs, two cervix and two vaginas has defied the odds by becoming a mum after giving birth to a “miracle” baby.

Eleanor Rowe, 36, only discovered she had a rare congenital abnormality by accident in 2013.

Having found herself single and in her 30s the counsellor decided to freeze her eggs and spent £6,000 on two harvesting cycles at a London clinic.

But when she was sent for a 3D scan of her ovaries, the sonographer mistakenly thought she was having full IVF treatment and instead carried out a 3D scan of her womb.

The results showed an abnormality on the scan, which led staff to believe she may have two wombs.

Eleanor was referred to Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow for an investigative operation which revealed she also had two cervix and two vaginas.

The condition, known as uterus didelphys, developed when she was a foetus.

She said doctors said the chance of having it was one in a million.

"I just can't believe I lived three decades without knowing this was all going on inside me,” she says.

"I had had smear tests before and it was never picked up.”

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Though Eleanor joked she had a “designer vagina” she was concerned the condition might impact her fertility.

Having undergone a corrective procedure, which involved removing the wall that divided the vaginas – leaving her with two cervix and wombs, doctors warned Eleanor she faced a 90% chance of miscarrying should she fall pregnant.

A year later Eleanor met technology consultant Chris and the couple married two years later.

"When we became serious I told Chris about my condition and that it would probably be difficult to have a baby, but he was very understanding.

After their wedding the pair did everything to try and raise their chances of getting pregnant, including cutting out processed foods and changing the cosmetic products Eleanor used.

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Two months after their wedding the couple discovered Eleanor was pregnant in her right - and weaker - womb.

But in the first trimester Eleanor suffered a miscarriage after the foetus attached itself to the thin dividing wall.

It was following a funeral service for their miscarried baby, that Eleanor discovered she was pregnant again.

"The timing was quite weird,” she said.

"Because I was tracking my cycles and taking basal body temperature every day, we saw I ovulated and conceived the day of the crematorium service for the first baby.

"It was like we had been given a gift.

"We said goodbye to one baby and another one came to us.”

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Having booked an appointment with her GP, Eleanor was immediately marked her as a high-risk pregnancy and given weekly monitoring at her Sheffield hospital.

The couple decided to keep their pregnancy a secret until Eleanor was 28 weeks, when they told friends and family and finally felt able to start preparing for the baby by buying baby clothes.

At 24 weeks, she discovered she had also contracted obstetric cholestasis, a serious liver disorder which can result in stillbirth.

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But Eleanor beat the odds, and three months ago gave birth via C-section to Imogen Rose on July 9 2019.

Now she wants her story to offer encouragement to other couples going through fertility struggles.

"Any fertility issue is an extraordinarily hard thing to go through," she said.

"But even with my condition there was a happy ending.

"I just want to give other women a bit of hope.”