The hug that saved unborn twins’ lives
THESE twins’ bond is so close that they saved each other by hugging constantly in the womb.
Anni and Mabli Charles shared the same placenta and sac, and their umbilical cords became so knotted that one pull on them could have cut off their blood and oxygen supply.
But the girls hugged each other so closely throughout mum Sali Hughes-charles’ pregnancy that it prevented the cords from getting stretched out. It meant that the girls’ lives were saved by each other until they were finally born.
Sali, 34, who lives with husband Dafydd in Colwyn Bay, North Wales, said: “The doctors had no idea – they thought there was a dividing membrane between the girls, but there wasn’t. “Because they shared the same sac, it meant that their cords had become knotted in the womb, so if they had pulled apart then the cords could have cut off their blood supply.
“But because they were hugging so tightly all the way through, it ended up saving their lives.”
The couple were stunned when they found out Sali was expecting twins at her 12-week scan.
She said: “When the sonographer showed me the two heartbeats on the screen, I was so shocked that I couldn’t speak. The doctors actually saw one more baby too, which would have been a triplet, but that baby stopped growing at six weeks.”
At every scan, the twins were hugging each other so tightly that it was impossible to see them properly on the monitor. They were delivered in May 2018 by caesarean section.
Sali said of her daughters, who are now three: “They have such a close bond. They are inseparable, just as they were in the womb.”