MY IMPATIENCE saved my twins
Nikki’s desire to know the gender of her babies was a life saver Nikki Maslin, 35, Mandurah, WA
You’re having identical twins,’ the sonographer said, scanning my bump. ‘Twins?’ I replied, shocked.
My son Jaxon had just turned two and never slept. ‘We’ll be fine,’ my fiance Damien, 38, reassured.
Impatient to know their gender, at 15 weeks I had an early gender scan. ‘They’re boys,’ the sonographer said, but then he frowned.
When a doctor came in to check the scan, he delivered earth-shattering news.
One of my boys was much smaller than his brother.
‘He’s hanging on by a thread,’ he said.
Then, a twin specialist explained my stark options.
‘The small baby is unfixable,’ she said gently, explaining his organs were shutting down.
We had three unbearable choices: terminate both, tie a knot in the umbilical cord to terminate the smaller boy, or let nature take its course. I was horrified.
‘I’m not terminating either of them!’ I said, stunned. But three days later, there was more news.
‘The boys have stage three twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome, or TTTS. It means the blood vessels of the shared placenta are connected,’ said the doctor.
Because of the fusion, the bigger baby was receiving too much blood, and had a failing
We had three unbearable choices
heart, while the smaller one wasn’t getting enough.
Were we going to lose them both? I sobbed.
The one chance to save them was called fetal laser ablation. It would sever the blood vessels connecting them, so the bigger baby might survive.
Sadly, the chances of the smaller bub pulling through were slim. While both boys made it through the surgery, we were warned the small twin was too sick to survive.
‘Miracles happen,’ I replied, refusing to give up on my bub.
After that I was scanned twice weekly and would shake and vomit beforehand, dreading bad news.
Amazingly I made it to 32 weeks when the twins were delivered by C-section.
Bigger twin Klay was born first at almost 2.1 kilos, and Steele followed at 1.36 kilos.
Now four, Klay is still the bigger twin, at 5cm taller than his brother. And I’m the support co-ordinator for
TTTS Australia.
If I hadn’t had that early scan, it could have all been too late. It’s incredible to think that my impatience ended up saving both their lives.