As Vicky Green cuddles her newborn twins, she cannot believe that she has made medical history. Amazingly her twins were born nearly two weeks apart.
Miss Green gave birth first to Presley, who weighed just 1lb 8oz, when she was 26 weeks pregnant. But then her labour stopped, keeping his twin sister Paisley inside her womb. Finally she gave birth by caesarean to Paisley 12 days later. She weighed 2lb 8oz.
And now they have have the record as the longest time apart for twins to be born in England.
Miss Green, who has finally brought her babies home from hospital, said: ‘I couldn’t believe it when one was born and the other stayed inside. I just had to hope and pray they would survive.’
Miss Green, 32, a teaching assistant at a special needs school in Manchester, and partner Darren Bradshaw, had only found out she was pregnant four weeks earlier.
She said: ‘My monthly periods had stopped but I just put it down to stress. Then I did a pregnancy test.’ But there was another shock in store – as a scan also showed she was carrying twins.
She said: ‘I couldn’t believe it. I hadn’t had a baby bump at all by this stage. Doctors said that it was because both the twins had been lying back against my spine.’
Miss Green had two weeks to get used to the idea of twins before she went into premature labour.
Doctors at St Mary’s Hospital, Manchester, tried to stop her labour but could not and Presley was born.
Miss Green said: ‘Presley was just so incredibly tiny, but right from the start he has been such a fighter.’
After his birth, her labour contractions stopped before she could give birth to her second twin and she was sent home.
She said: ‘It was a really strange sensation – I’d just given birth to one baby who was at the hospital, and then I still had another baby inside me.’
Doctors had decided to leave the second twin as she was showing no signs of distress.
But 12 days after Presley’s arrival, they decided to deliver the second baby because Miss Green had developed a potentially life threatening infection.
The twins stayed in hospital while they grew stronger and now, at five months, have been allowed home.
Miss Green said: ‘They are doing incredibly well and they are gaining weight each day.’
Video: 1 in 500 million, extremely rare twins born in separate wombs
Share or comment on this article: Mother, 32, makes medical history after her twin babies were born 12 DAYS apart.
