A mum has given birth to two conjoined boys in India who doctors say are “healthy” despite sharing a torso.
Shams Praveen, 22, and her husband Zafar Alam that they were about to have twins, whose name has not yet been revealed, did not know until their birth.
The babies – joined at the stomach, two arms and two legs – were born on Monday at the Purnia Government Medical College Hospital in Bihar, a state in the east of the country.
Due to the rarity of the condition, the couple was transferred to a larger hospital for specialized care.
Treatment is continuing, but the medical team says the children are doing well.
Shams Praveen, 22, and her husband Zafar Alam that they were about to give birth to conjoined twins, who had not yet been named, did not know until their birth.
The babies – joined at the stomach, with two arms and two legs each – were born on Monday at Purnia Government Medical College Hospital in Bihar, India.
A local source said: ‘The children have two bodies, but the stomachs of the two children are connected to each other.
“The condition of the children is still healthy.”
And they added, “On Monday, when the pregnant woman felt the pain, the family members took her to the government medical hospital, where the pregnant woman gave birth to two of these rare babies.”
In December, there were protests on social media after conjoined twins from Punjab, India, who were abandoned by their parents and raised in a shelter, revealed they were paid only one salary.
In a YouTube interview, Sohna and Mohna Singh, then 19, claimed they only earned £200 a month. The siblings had previously said they were paid two separate salaries.
Sohna and Mohna have been employed as electricians by Punjab State Power Corporation Limited for over a year, working 12-hour shifts.
The siblings have two hearts, two kidneys, and spinal cords, as well as two pairs of arms, but they share a liver, gallbladder, legs, and spleen.
Pictured: conjoined twins in hospital. Due to the rarity of the condition, the couple was transferred to a larger hospital for specialized care. Treatment is continuing, but the medical team says the children are doing well
Conjoined twins are extremely rare, resulting in an estimated 1 in 50,000 to 1 in 100,000 births, according to the National Library of Medicine (NLM).
The medical library reports an overall survival rate of 7.5 percent. Only 60 percent of surgically separated cases survive.
The majority of conjoined twins die in the womb, and about half of those born alive do not survive for more than 24 hours.
Conjoined twins have a female to male ratio of 3 to 1, according to NLM.
There are two theories as to how conjoined twins are formed, according to Stanford Medicine Children’s Health.
The first is that a single fertilized egg does not divide completely during the process of creating identical twins.
The second theory is that the fusion of two fertilized eggs occurs early in development.
The Mayo Clinic notes that conjoined twins may be joined at the chest, abdomen, spine, pelvis, torso, or head.
