TWIN-CREDIBLE
As siblings celebrate their 10th birthday, parents recall
AFTER suffering the heartache of two miscarriages and four failed rounds of IVF Julia and Stuart Eynon thought they may never be able to have children.
But on their fifth and final attempt at fertility treatment the couple were given the life-changing news that they would be expecting twins in the summer of 2011.
While twins run the greater risk of being born prematurely than a single pregnancy the babies arrived dangerously early at 27 weeks and had a very slim chance of survival.
“It does still bring tears to my eyes when I talk about it,” admitted Julia. “Every day, even now, I think about how lucky I am and how lucky they are. It could have been such a different situation.”
Julia and Stuart, from Brackla, Bridgend, said they started trying for children after they got married in June 2005. But after months without success Julia was diagnosed with polycystic ovaries and given medication. They then tried IVF but lost two babies within weeks of her becoming pregnant.
Following blood tests they discovered Stuart had an abnormal chromosome make-up which was hampering them from conceiving properly. They travelled to Guy’s Hospital in London for £10,000 treatment after receiving a grant but still Julia failed to get pregnant.
However in October 2010, after a second round of embryo testing in London, she discovered she was expecting twins.
“It was amazing. After all the other cycles where it hadn’t worked we couldn’t believe it,” Julia added.
But 27 weeks into Julia’s pregnancy, just as her anxiety around its viability had started to reduce, she started experiencing back pain which got progressively worse.
“I took myself to bed really early. All through the night I woke every hour and eventually at about 4am I just knew I had to ring the hospital to get myself checked out,” she recalled.
“They asked me to go in so I got Stuart out of bed. Little did I know that they thought I was in labour – I didn’t suspect that at all.”
When the couple arrived at Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend, Julia assumed she was going to be treated for a possible urine infection and then discharged home.
“It was only when they had a proper look and examined me that I found out I was 3cm dilated,” she said.
“I was in a terrible state as I knew exactly what that meant – I was in labour. I was really upset as I thought they were going to die.
“I’d mentally prepared for them to be born at around 35/36 weeks. I never thought I’d be going into labour at 27 weeks.”
As the Princess of Wales Hospital did not have the facilities to deal with babies under 30 weeks, Julia was “blue-lighted” to Singleton Hospital in Swansea for specialist care.
She was given medication to reduce the pain from her contractions, as well as steroids to boost the lung function of the unborn twins.
After being admitted she sat down with a neonatologist who laid bare just how unwell her babies could be once they were delivered.
“He sat on the bed and he literally went through – from head to toe – what was likely to be wrong with my babies. He was preparing me for the worst,” she added.
“It went from bleeding on the brain to the eyes, to the lungs, the heart, the kidneys. He literally moved though every organ.”
The experienced doctor told Julia that the longer the babies remained inside her the better their chance of survival would become.
“He said every day you keep them inside will make a difference to their lungs, their growth, their strength, and their development. I just kept hoping I could keep them in for another day, another week, whatever it took.”
But within 12 hours of being in Singleton Hospital, Julia had become 7cm dilated and would need to go straight to theatre for an emergency C-section.
“I’d never had surgery before and all of a sudden I was rushed off to theatre and everything was going on around me. It became a bit of a blur,” said Julia. “There were double the staff there because it was two babies and double again because it was during handover time between evening staff and night shift staff.”
Holly and Aaron Eynon were born on March 30, 2011, weighing just 2lbs and 2lbs 4oz respectively.
While Holly came out first and made a “little squeak”, which Julia took as a positive sign, Aaron was not breathing and required urgent CPR.
They were then placed in incubators and taken to the special care baby unit before Julia or Stuart could even hold them.
“They wheeled them past so I could literally have a glance of them as they were taken away. But they were so small and the incubators were so high that I couldn’t see them. I was really upset by that.”
However, nurses managed to take pictures of the tiny and very premature twins and sent them to Julia.
“Their skin was see-through, Aaron’s eyes were sealed closed and didn’t open for another four days, and their fingers were webbed as they hadn’t fully developed,” Julia added.
“It just shows at that stage how much more developing they needed to do.”
The following morning, after a “painful” post C-section shower, Julia was able to spend an hour with both her newborns.
But it soon transpired that Holly was deeply ill with a perforated bowel and would need to be taken to the University Hospital of Wales (UHW) in Cardiff for life-saving surgery.
“I was told she probably wasn’t going to survive. She had a one in three chance,” said Julia.
“By the time I got myself sorted they were wheeling her past me in her incubator. I just told Stuart to go with her to Cardiff as I didn’t want her to be on her own. I was so frightened for her.
“I took a glance at her and I thought this might be the last time I ever see her.”
At UHW Stuart said medics “battled” over whether little Holly was strong enough to withstand surgery. The decision was made to cut her abdomen to drain as much of the fluid away as possible. Thankfully the procedure worked so well that the bowel healed on its own in the following days without the need for invasive surgery.
“She’s still got quite a large scar on her side where the tube was in to drain the fluid,” Julia added. “The doctors said it was very rare for it to heal on its own.”
Although Holly was improving Aaron remained on a ventilator for several weeks after his birth. “Every time they tried to take him off he wasn’t managing to breathe on his own,” Julia said. “He’s still asthmatic now and that’s from the long-term damage from the scarring on his chest.”
Julia was finally discharged from hospital after more than a week which allowed her to visit Holly at UHW and hold her for the first time.
“She looked so different to Aaron. She had dark, dark hair but Aaron’s was so blonde and fine that you could hardly see it.
“She had these big eyes. You could see she was feisty even then as her legs were kicking. But I was so torn at that point because I was leaving Aaron on his own in the other hospital. I had to s e e Ho l l y fo r just an hour and know she was OK.”
During the three weeks they were apart, doctors discovered both twins had a hole in the heart and found a bleed on Aaron’s brain.
But they overcame everything and, after spending a further nine weeks in the Princess of Wales Hospital, were allowed to go home on June 23 – six days before they were originally due to be born.
Holly went on to develop retinopathy in her eyes and Aaron needed surgery for vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) – a condition caused when the flow of urine goes the wrong way and goes to the kidneys.
But in recent years the pair, who are pupils at Coety Primary School, have flourished.
“Holly is very active. She likes to be out on the trampoline, climbing, on her bike. Aaron likes all of that too, but I think if he had the choice he’d be on his PlayStation,” Julia added.
“The pair of them are very sociable. Covid has been hard on them as they’ve not seen their friends and aren’t able to be as active but they’ve been taking part in virtual kickboxing lessons, which is great.”
Holly and Aaron turn 10 on Tuesday, March 30, and are planning to have a party at home due to Covid-19 regulations.
Julia concluded: “I still can’t believe how amazing staff were on all the wards in the three different hospitals we were in. If they hadn’t done such an amazing job they wouldn’t be here.”