Claire Cunliffe’s story about her tiny miracle twins appears in TAKE A BREAK mag…
Featureworld specialises in placing your story in a variety of publications. So I was delighted to gain a double page spread in the Sunday People newspaper for Claire and her husband Jason – and then equally delighted to place their story in Take a Break mag!
And recently their story about the survival of their miracle twins appeared on the front cover and over two pages of Take a Break.
Their story about how their miracle twins were the tiniest ever born in the UK was also picked up by the Mail on Sunday newspaper!
Do you want to sell your real life story to more than one publication? If so, contact me using the confidential sell my story form to the right of this page >>>
I gave birth to the UK’s tiniest twins...
The psychic looked me in the eye. “I see you having twins,” he said smiling.
TWINS! Was he mad? To think I had paid for this nonsense….
While friends were getting married, I was too busy concentrating on my career. And even if I were broody, I didn’t even have a boyfriend.
Then I met Jason Comer, a 45 year old floor fitter through friends.
And suddenly the broody button was pressed.
I got pregnant but as there is no history of twins in my family I thought nothing of it.
And to my amazement at our routine 12 week scan the doctor turned the screen round so Jason and I could see.
“See that?” She pointed to a two blurry circles on the screen and suddenly all became crystal clear.
Two circles were two heads! All of a sudden I felt terribly guilty about the psychic – I was having twins after all.
While doctors fussed that at the age of 40, I was an older mum, I felt great.
At 20 weeks Jason and I discovered we were having identical girls.
We ordered cots and pushchairs in readiness to great our two daughters.
Only in November 2015 at 22 weeks I began to get a terrible backache.
“Perfectly normal during pregnancy especially a twin one,” said the midwife.
A week later though it was still there and I went to hospital.
There tests revealed I had a urine infection. Worryingly that wasn’t all – the infection had sparked labour off. The backache was early labour.
“We’ll have to admit you to the ward and try to delay it. Those babies are too small to be born right now,” said the consultant.
But injections to prevent the labour progressing didn’t work.
As I lay there feeling contractions, a doctor came in.
“Do you want us to resuscitate the babies? “ he asked, “they have only a ten per cent chance of survival.”
Jason and I were horrified. We couldn’t let our babies die.
“They will be born a week earlier than the cut off week for an abortion, which is 24 weeks,” he went on, “you can decide to ‘let nature take its course.’
I burst into tears. Jason said: “We want the babies to have every chance of life.”
Our decision meant we had to be urgently transferred from our local hospital to Bolton where they had special care for the tiniest babies.
Twelve hours later Rylea, arrived swiftly followed by her sister Robyn.
And they were alive.
Doctors quickly rushed to their aid to help them breathe. Then after barely a glimpse they were whisked off to special care.
Later as I was wheeled down to their ward to see them I couldn’t believe how tiny they were.
Rylea’s hand was only as big as the tip of my little finger.
Incredibly while Robyn weighed 1Ib 3oz – which was very tiny – Rylea weighed only 15oz.
The special care nurse told us: “ I can’t believe how lucky you are to have them. Doctors say they have never treated such tiny twins.“
After five days I still hadn’t held them but I came home. It was agony coming back without the girls. We spent every day by their bedsides but it was hard. Back home at night we barely slept. Every time the phone rang I worried it was bad news.
I longed to hold them.
But aged two weeks Rylea had dropped so much weight we couldn’t do. Instead we had to make do stroking her in the incubator with a finger. And Robyn was also struggling – she had a collapsed lung and jaundice.
It was to be a month before they were placed in our arms for their first cuddle. And even then they were so tiny, we couldn’t keep them out of their incubators for long.
The next nine months were a rollercoaster ride of emotions as the girls battled to stay alive. Jason and I barely slept as we expected any moment we’d get bad news.
At three months Robyn contracted sepsis. After hours by her bedside we finally went home and fell asleep. But we’d been in bed for only an hour when we got the call from the hospital we dreaded.
“You need to get here as fast as possible as Robyn may not have long,” said a nurse.
By the time we arrived her condition had stablised. But her airway had collapsed and for a moment doctors thought they’d lost her.
Thankfully, by March 2016 the girls had turned a corner and a month after their due date on 18th April they were well enough to come home in Cheadle, Cheshire.
At first they were on oxygen fed by tube for much of the day. But gradually they managed to breathe more by themselves.
Then one day I was changing Rylea when her face lit up with a smile. I looked at Robyn and she was smiling too.
My spirits soared. Suddenly all the worry of the last months disappeared.
Over the next few weeks they began to chuckle together.
Now they are trying to sit up and adore watching eachother. They make one another laugh.
They have undergone many tests – premature babies can suffer all sorts of problems – and they’ve also had treatment to their eyes to ensure their sight won’t be affected by their early birth. But doctors believe they will grow up healthy. And they are reaching all of their milestones normally.
They are still tiny. I belong to the Tamba, the twins association and while they are not the tiniest twins to survive in the world – that record is held by Rumaisa 9.2oz at birth and her sister Hiba 1Ib 4oz at birth when they were born in Maywood, US in September 2004 – they are the tiniest twins they know of in the UK.
At nine months old the girls were so small – they weighed around 10Ib each – they were still wearing babygros for newborns.
Even now whenever I take them out, I am stopped by well wishers in the street. People can’t get over how smiley and tiny they are. They often say they are like little dolls.
But while they might be tiny now they are growing fast – we don’t expect them to stay tiny for long.
Not all hospitals will resuscitate babies born so early so we feel incredibly grateful to the doctors who helped our daughters survive.
Every time they smile I have to pinch myself that they are still here. Already they have brought us so much joy. We feel so incredibly lucky to have them.”
Have you given birth to miracle twins, triplets, quads or even quintuplets or more! Contact me to find out how much money you could earn for your story >>>