A mother with a heart-shaped uterus defied the odds to give birth to “one-in-500 million,” twins. Now the children are 16 months old and thriving.
Stay-at-home mom, Karen Troy, 25, and her husband, Shaunan, 24, who owns a junk removal company, were delighted to find out they were expecting in January 2021.
But the couple from Northborough, Massachusetts, got more than they bargained for when they found out they were expecting twins on their 12-week scan.
Karen was also told that she had a bicornuate uterus—which means it is heart-shaped—and only four in 1,000 women have this condition.
The mother of three had no idea she had an irregularly shaped uterus, despite already having one daughter, now six years old.
It is also believed that the chance of becoming pregnant with twins with a heart-shaped womb is one-in-500 million.
“It’s very rare to have a heart-shaped uterus and fall pregnant with twins,” Karen said. “I just wanted to make sure they were OK.”
At the scan, Karen remembered being confused and kept asking if the twins were fine.
However, she didn’t yet believe that she had a heart-shaped uterus so she went back for another scan to double-check that the first sonographer had been right.
Karen was then monitored closely since her pregnancy was considered high-risk.
Her pregnancy was smooth until doctors found out that Karen had developed pre-eclampsia at 34 weeks—a condition that causes high blood pressure—and had to be rushed to an emergency c-section.
Ryan was born on Sept. 5, 2021, weighing 5lbs 10z (approx. 2.55 kg) at 9:44 a.m., followed by Raelynn at 9:46 a.m. weighing 5lbs 1oz (approx. 2.29 kg).
“It was really emotional seeing them for the first time because they were tiny,“ Karen said. ”I was so happy but scared to have two tiny babies.”
“The first 24 hours were really hard for me,” Karen added. “I had to stay in a machine to stop any seizures from the pre-eclampsia.”
Meanwhile, the twins needed to stay in the neonatal intensive care unit to learn to feed and stabilize their breathing.
“Ryan’s heart rate kept going up and down,” Karen said.
She was able to come home after four days but had to leave the twins at Umass Memorial Medical Center until they were ready to come home after 27 days.
“It was depressing being home without them,” she said.
However, when the twins were home, the family was really excited for them.
The twins are now 16 months old and are thriving apart from having some delays in their motor skills.
Karen said that the twins’ personalities are very different from each other.
“Raelynn is a hurricane,“ Karen said. “She loves to pick everything up and put it in her mouth.”
Whereas Ryan will observe more and is quieter.
“I never found out about my uterus in my first pregnancy as it’s not always obvious in scans,“ Karen said. ”It’s really hard to fall pregnant with twins with a heart-shaped uterus.”
“I’m just glad they are healthy and well.”
