The Atlantic

Not Quite Triplets, Not Just Siblings

A woman with a rare condition gave birth to three babies: one last month, and twins four weeks later.
Source: Robert Daly / Getty

Five weeks ago, a 20-year-old named Arifa Sultana delivered a baby in a hospital in southwestern Bangladesh. As the BBC has reported, Sultana had received limited prenatal care in her rural village, but she had no problems during delivery and returned home with her husband and infant son. Less than a month later, on March 21, Sultana was rushed to another hospital with stomach pain and another burst of amniotic fluid. When doctors examined her, they realized she was in labor—this time with twins.

Sultana, it turns out, has two uteruses. In one, she’d been carrying her first son, and in the other, a second baby boy and

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