Ultra rare conjoined twins are spotted with a newborn in tow nine months after sparking pregnancy rumours – but how can they have a baby?

Conjoined twins Abby and Brittany Hensel were spotted holding a newborn baby last week, sparking speculation that they have made good on their very public vow: ‘We are going to be moms one day’. 

The siblings, 35, from Minnesota, are one of only a few sets of dicephalic twins in history, meaning they have two heads, two sets of lungs and two hearts but share a single body from the waist down, including their reproductive organs.

When they were born in 1990, doctors warned their parents, Patty, a registered nurse, and Mike, a carpenter and landscaper, that their newborns were unlikely to survive the night. 

But they ended up defying the odds and went on to become regular names in the paper, going on Oprah aged six and soon having their very own TLC programme. However, as they grew up, much curiosity surrounded the twins’ love life and their future plans for starting a family and getting married.

Abby and Brittany were snapped carrying a newborn baby in a car seat and placing the infant into the back of a black Tesla at a parking lot in Arden Hills, Minnesota on Thursday last week. 

Nine months ago, in November 2024, they posted a video on their TikTok account with a series of headlines, one of which stated: ‘Married and baby on the way.’

Abby married U.S. Army veteran Joshua Bowling in 2021 but details of their nuptials only became public last year, when it also emerged Abby has become a stepmother to Bowling’s daughter from a previous relationship, according to TMZ.

Rumours the sisters have had a new addition to the family have led many to wonder how, and if, conjoined twins can carry children or give birth. 

Abby and Brittany have always been clear that they want to find romance and become mothers.

In interviews throughout their teenage years, Abby said: ‘Yeah, we are going to be moms one day, but we don’t want to talk about how it’s going to work yet.’

Brittany added: ‘We’re going to be great moms.

‘The whole world doesn’t need to know who we are seeing, what we are doing and when we are going to do it.’

Like most conjoined twins, Abby and Brittany – who share reproductive organs – have never publicly spoken about their sex life, despite immense public curiosity.

Although Brittany – the left twin – can’t feel anything on the right side of the body and Abby – the right twin – can’t feel anything on her left, instinctively their limbs move as if coordinated by one person. 

This means they can conceive a child in the conventional way. 

If Abby or Brittany did go on to have biological children, they would be the first female dicephalic, or fused side-by-side, twins to do so.

However, it is not clear who would be the legal mother and if there would be complications with carrying a baby. It is also a possibility that the pair may have used a surrogate or adopted, if the baby is theirs. 

Abby and Brittany have previously discussed their desire to get married and have children of their own, however, they said it would be a private journey. 

Brittany said in a past interview: ‘The whole world doesn’t need to know who we are seeing, what we are doing and when we are going to do it.

‘But believe me, we are totally different people.’

Abby and Brittany have two heads, two brains, two spinal cords, and two hearts, which are part of a shared circulatory system.

Despite having the same blood circulation system, their brains and spinal cords are their own, which means they have to work together to coordinate tasks, such as carrying items or getting to places. 

They had to each take a driving test, which they both passed, and work as a team to get from A to B. Brittany said that they both need to steer but her sister is in charge of the brake and acceleration pedals. 

There have only been two reported cases of conjoined twins giving birth and one involved sisters who had been surgically separated.

A 2001 report by US medics at Atlanta Medical Centre in Georgia documented a childbirth by the Blazek sisters.

Josepha and Rosa Blazek, born in 1878, were monogenital pygopagus twins, meaning they were conjoined at the base of the spine and pelvis but they had separate vaginas.

The sisters claimed to have only had sex once, in July 1909, involving Rosa’s vagina but Josepha claimed that she ‘also had libido’.

Rosa’s final period prior to pregnancy occurred in July 1909.

Writing in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the doctors said: ‘The twins recalled that early in her pregnancy, Rosa experienced hyperemesis gravidarum, but Josepha was spared.

‘Josepha continued to menstruate from her side of their shared vagina throughout Rosa’s pregnancy and until approximately week 32.’

In April 1910, Rosa welcomed a ‘healthy’ son delivered by vaginal birth. The baby was also breastfed.

But no first-hand account of the baby’s delivery was ever published in medical literature or additional details of the labour.

Conjoined brothers, Chang and Eng Bunker, born in 1811, remarkably had 21 children between them.

And in 2021, Charity Lincoln Gutierrez-Vazquez welcomed a healthy baby girl at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle, the same hospital where she and her conjoined twin were born 21 years earlier.

She and twin sister Kathleen were attached from the breastbone to the pelvis when they were born in 2000.

The sisters, who each had one leg, shared several internal organs and a third fused leg.

However, when they were seven months old, they were successfully separated by a team of nearly 30 doctors, nurses, and support staff during a dangerous 31-hour surgery.

Conjoined twins Lupita and Carmen, 24, born in Mexico, share a bloodstream, pelvis, reproductive system and liver but not the same sexuality.

Carmen has a boyfriend, but Lupita is asexual, meaning she doesn’t experience sexual urges and has a low interest in sexual activity. 

Her sister met her boyfriend, Daniel, on Hinge in 2020 and although the pair see each other, Carmen shared in 2023 that they are not sexually active.

Pink News reported at the time that Carmen and Daniel want to move in together and get engaged, but they decided against having children because they are unable to have them biologically. They are both on hormone blockers to stop their periods.

Abby and Brittany are the rarest form of conjoined twins, the result of a single fertilised egg failing to fully separate in the womb.

Conjoined twins occur when siblings have their skin or internal organs fused together. Just one set of twins in every 40,000 is born connected in some way to each other and only 1 per cent of those survive beyond the first year.

It is caused by a fertilized egg beginning to split into two embryos a few weeks after conception, but the process stops before it is complete. The most common type is twins joined at the chest or abdomen.

Doctors can only tell which organs the siblings share, and therefore plan surgery accordingly, after they are born. At least one twin survives 75 percent of the time. 

The Hensel twins were thrust into the spotlight aged six, when they appeared on Oprah and started speaking to the press.

They revealed to Oprah Winfrey that they tell each other all their secrets and can sense what the other is feeling, but can’t read each other’s minds.

The pair even had their own TLC show that chronicled their major life events, including high school graduation and job hunting.

They have two spines (which join at the pelvis), two hearts, two oesophagi, two stomachs, three kidneys, two gall bladders, four lungs (two of which are joined), one liver, one ribcage, a shared circulatory system, and partially shared nervous systems.

The twins, who have their own birth certificates and passports, are now fifth grade math teachers at an elementary school in New Brighton, Minnesota, where they were born and raised.

They revealed that they divide up their responsibilities at work but only receive one single wage which they share between them.

Although the sisters have two teaching licenses and were considered as individuals within the school system with two separate degrees, this isn’t reflected in their finances.  

Abby previously told the BBC: ‘Obviously right away we understand that we are going to get one salary because we’re doing the job of one person.

‘As maybe experience comes in we’d like to negotiate a little bit, considering we have two degrees and because we are able to give two different perspectives or teach in two different ways.’

In a 2001 interview with Time, the twins’ father Mike said his daughters had already then asked about finding husbands one day.

He said: ‘They’re good-looking girls. They’re witty. They’ve got everything going for them, except they’re together.’

Abby’s relationship with Josh, who is a father-of-one, became public in March last year, when they announced their wedding. 

On TikTok account @abbyandbrittanyhensel, a clip revealed insight into Abby’s wedding day – and a Facebook account titled Britt And Abby also featured a picture of the happy couple.

For the ceremony, the twins sported a sleeveless wedding dress with lace trim detailing while the groom wore a grey suit.

While Abby and Joshua made their relationship public, Brittany has kept her romantic life out of the spotlight. 

The Daily Mail has contacted Abby and Brittany for comment.