A woman in Kazakhstan has defied the odds, giving birth to a second twin 11 weeks after the first.
Liliya Konovalova, from Uralsk, had a premature girl on 24 May, but her son was only born on 9 August.
The Kazakh Health Ministry has placed the odds of such births at 50 million to one and, unsurprisingly given those odds, this is the first time it has happened in the country.
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When the 29-year-old gave birth to her daughter Liya 25 weeks into her pregnancy, the baby weighed only 1lb 13oz and was placed in intensive care for a month. Brother Maxim didn't arrive until two-and-a-half months later, weighing in at a healthier 6lbs 6oz.
The highly unusual dual births were only possible because Liliya has a double uterus - a rare abnormality that occurred when she was in her own mother's womb, doctors said. The condition is known as uterus didelphys and it meant each of Liliya's twins developed in their own womb.
The siblings now both weigh just less than 10lbs and Liliya is preparing to take them home. The proud mother described the births as a 'miracle' and praised the work of medical staff.
She said: "I was shocked when I found out that I had such a condition. I was so worried about the life of my premature baby.
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"But our doctors were great. What they did was a miracle. They showed themselves to be real professionals."
While such births are exceptionally rare, it is even rarer still for the gap between each baby to be as long as 11 weeks. But having discovered Liliya's condition during the first birth, medical staff waited patiently on standby for the second.
Eset Yeralin, deputy director of the regional perinatal centre, said: "We learned about this condition almost immediately, during the first birth, so our specialists took direct care of the second birth.
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"All this time the mother was in our centre, caring for the girl and waiting for the second birth."
Though the odds are stacked against such births, they have happened before. Earlier this year in fact, a mother in Germany gave birth to her second twin 97 days after the first.
Oxana gave birth to Liana prematurely at 26 weeks on 17 November 2018 - with the tiny baby weighing just 2lbs - and had to wait several months for sister Leonie, who arrived four days after Oxana's due date on 22 February, weighing 8.1lbs.
Topics: World News, Weird