A Chinese woman from Suining, southwest China's Sichuan Province gave birth to a baby girl with two heads that surgeons ruled cannot be separated.

Doctors at Suining Central Hospital identified the woman as Bao Qiaoying, 25 and added it was extremely rare for babies to be born with two heads.

Bao's baby is the first case in China to have two heads.

Bao works as a migrant worker in Guangdong Province where she became pregnant. Surprisingly, her initial scan showed that the baby insider her womb was normal.

She and her husband Liao Guojun went back to Suining to prepare for the birth of their first child.

A second scan again showed that the baby was normal, however, a third scan last week suggested a second head. Bao was told by doctors that "the fetus has two heads, and one body".

Bao said, "My husband and I immediately went to the central hospital for another checkup and colour Doppler imaging confirmed my baby has two heads but one body."

The couple planned to abort the child but Bao went into labour after arriving at Suining Central Hospital and gave birth.

Doctor Zhang Libin said he advised the couple to give birth to the baby and abandon the abortion plan because it would be too dangerous for the mother who is already in labour.

The baby was delivered by c-section. Further laboratory tests showed that the baby has two spines and one and a half hearts. The two heads share all other organs.

Zhang added that the babies must now live together as they could not separate the heads by surgery.