Another Set Of Mismatched Twins
Earlier this month I posted a story on a set of twins that were born a minute apart weighing 3.5 lbs and 1.2 lbs.
When Jake and Tom Armstrong were born it was hard to believe that they were twins, let alone identical.
Wombmates: Jake, left and Tom after the birth
Jake, who arrived first, weighed 5lb 2oz -four times heavier than the tiny 1lb 5oz boy who followed him.
The fact that Tom even survived until the birth was a miracle, as his placenta was not functioning properly and he was effectively starving.
The babies were delivered by emergency caesarean in December 2006.
Their mother Georgina Armstrong, 35, said: "Tom was such a tiny scrap, just lying in the doctor's hand. He was showing barely any signs of life, and the doctors weren't going to resuscitate him.
"But then he opened his tiny eyes, and that was a turning point. It showed that he was prepared to fight."
The couple, who live in Winchester, Hampshire, had been overjoyed when Mrs Armstrong became pregnant in May 2006.
But a scan at nine weeks revealed that one twin was a week behind in growth. They were sent to the foetal medicine unit at the Princess Anne Hospital in Southampton, where doctors discovered that Tom's placenta wasn't working efficiently.
This is different to the recent case of mismatched twins in Australia where the babies were suffering from twin-to-twin transfusion.
The Armstrongs refused the selective termination they were offered.
I am so proud of these parents. Doctors recommend selective reduction all of the time citing that the outcome may not be favourable for the smaller baby.
This is the second story that I have personally covered with a positive outcome. That is not to say that every baby that is not developing as fast as their twin will be okay, just that good things could happen. I would rather try to have both of my children survive than reduce and not know what could have been...
Related Articles:
Pregnant With Triplets...Would You Chose A Reduction?
Comments
These are my babies.
I would just like to say that it wasn't simply a case of Tom "not growing as fast" as Jake.
Tom had very little amniotic fluid throughout the pregnancy which in itself could have caused severe problems with lung development as well as malformation of his limbs. He also had absent end diastolic flow in his umbilical artery from at least 19 weeks.
The signs were that he'd die in utero at any time.
The reason they were delivered was because of a deteriorating CTG (Tom's). His heartrate at birth was 20bpm and he wasn't breathing.
He truly is a marvel... not only to be here with us, but to be without problems.
It wasn't so much a case of us wanting to give both our boys a chance... at the time Tom's chances were dismal. It was more that we wanted to let nature take its course (we assumed he'd slip away before delivery) because we couldn't go throuhgh a selective termination.
Its true... doctors can be wrong sometimes... but we were very very very lucky.
Georgie Armstrong