Finding out you're having twins is always a surprise.
But for Jennifer Ashwood, the news came with a twist when doctors discovered she had two wombs – and had become simultaneously pregnant in both.
The odds of the phenomenon are 500million to one, with fewer than a hundred examples ever recorded worldwide, and just a handful in Britain.
Most pregnant women with Mrs Ashwood's condition, known as a bicornuate uterus, carry one baby on one side. Indeed, Mrs Ashwood, 31, had daughter Millie, now eight, without finding out.
'I've had a baby before and it was really straightforward,' she said. 'But my body surprised me this time.
We found out at the 20-week scan and ever since people have been saying how rare it was.'
The twins came home after two weeks, following treatment for jaundice.
She said: 'To have the two [wombs] is rare in itself, but to have an egg in both, then those to be fertilised, and then for both eggs to be in the right part ... it's a bit of a miracle. You think you know your body well, but it turns out you might not.
'Compared to my first pregnancy I was sick much, much more. Because it's so rare to carry a baby in each [womb], they didn't really quite know what was going to happen until they opened me up and took a look.
'It's very, very busy at home now,' she added. 'We haven't had much sleep but I don't think we'd be having much even if we just had one. It's double the cuddles and double the love.
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