Identical twins given a 50 per cent chance of survival save each other by hugging in the womb leaving their parents overjoyed.
Reuben and Theo
Identical twins given a 50 per cent chance of survival saved each other by hugging in the womb.
Reuben and Theo, now 22 months, were monoamniotic in the womb, meaning they shared one amniotic sac and risked strangling each other with their umbilical cords.
But incredibly the twins held hands and stayed tightly wrapped around each other throughout the entire pregnancy which stopped them getting tangled in the cords.
Mum Vicky Plowright, 30, was told of her twins condition at a ten-week scan.
Before that she didn’t even know she was expecting twins.
Vicky, from Godalming in Surrey, said: “I was with my sister, Georgina, and we were told the twins were monoamniotic twins.
“I was devastated, as doctors explained it also meant the babies were at extremely high risk – around 50 per cent – of not surviving the pregnancy, because of their close proximity.
“They still had two umbilical cords to deliver nourishment, which could become tangled, strangling them, which was so frightening to even imagine.”
Vicky had gone to the scan expecting it to be routine and planned on updating her fiancé, Chris Cremer, 32, when she got home.
“I was in total shock, as I’d just been saying to my sister ‘as long as there’s not two as we already have a daughter, Jocelyn, four, and I didn’t think we had the space or energy for two more,” she said.
But the laughter soon stopped when, moments later, the sonographer told them the twins looked worryingly close together.
Vicky, a nursery nurse, was immediately given an internal scan and possibility of them being conjoined was dismissed, but doctors were still concerned about the babies.
“The scan seemed to show our twins were sharing the same amniotic sac,” Vicky recalled.
“They said it meant the babies were at high risk and we needed to go back as soon as possible to see a specialist.
“I was hysterical and rang Chris in a total state. I had no idea what this would mean.
“In the space of an hour I’d found out we were expecting twins, but that they could be in danger.
“It was torture thinking that we could lose them at any time”
But everything changed at the 12-week scan with a specialist sonographer, when Vicky and Chris saw the twins had moved into a lifesaving embrace.
“To our astonishment, at the 12-week scan, we saw that they were cuddling each other and holding hands,” Vicky said.
“They were keeping each other alive by staying still, so their umbilical cords didn’t get tangled.”
Doctors arranged to see Vicky every two weeks for check-ups until the twins reached 32 weeks, when they wanted to deliver them.
“For the next few months, we were in a constant state of worry,” said Vicky.
“I didn’t feel I could get excited, because I was so worried we were going to be told at every scan that our twins hadn’t survived.
“By staying still in that position, they’d stopped the cords from becoming so badly tangled that it killed them. It really was a miracle.”
Then, at 32 weeks, Vicky was relieved when it was time to give birth to her babies as twin number two, Theo, had stopped growing because of the lack of space in the womb.
On December 22, 2015, she was taken to a delivery suite at the Royal Surrey Hospital in Guilford, with Chris by her side, for a caesarean section.
Reuben arrived at 11.22am weighing 3lb 14oz, followed by his identical twin brother, Theo, just one minute later, weighing 3lb 7oz.
“Both of them came out screaming and, most importantly, they were alive,” Vicky said.
“Chris was sobbing next to me as well. We were just so happy that they’d made it.”
Vicky was discharged on Christmas Day but the twins were kept in the neonatal unit for another five weeks, before being discharged at the end of January.
Now, they couldn’t be closer.
“They are the best of friends,” Vicky said.
“Before they even knew the world, they knew each other, and grew together in such a small space that I knew they would have a special bond for the rest of their lives.
“Reuben is the ‘do-er’ and Theo the ‘thinker’, but they always have an eye on where the other one is.”
Vicky was supported by Bliss, the charity for premature or sick babies.