Meet The Miracle Conjoined Twins | This Morning

[Music] it's a rare phenomenon that only occurs once in every two and a half million pregnancies but proud parents hannah and dan defied the odds when they welcomed their conjoined twins annabelle and isabelle this much the sisters who are attached from the chest to the pelvis share a bladder bowel and a fused leg but crucially have separate hearts well as the family now prepares for the challenge of separation they join us live from their home in northern ireland morning to both of you and your family there firstly congratulations good morning good morning the beautiful baby girls um so let's begin at the very beginning here because you've been together for 14 years married for six years but having a family for both of you was something that was very very important but wasn't something that was that easy was it the road to fertility was a tough one yes it was it was a very long journey um but absolutely worth it um we tried for quite a few years to have the girls and i was very overweight as well which didn't help so we weren't um we couldn't get any treatment until i lost weight what she did and and as soon as we started treatment our first um cycle we conceived the girls um at that point we went for a very early scan with just one baby just one wee heartbeat and then we got the big shock at the book and then scan that it was twins so this was the 12-week scan and uh and that's when you were told how was it broken to you what was said what what was known at that point um the midwife kept it very very calm at that point she just told us that it was twins but that she wanted us to go and see the consultant at the local hospital and even then we weren't told um we knew that they were concerned um but we were referred then to fatal medicine um in belfast and that's when we were told never dawned on us that that was going to be um a possibility and as they were doing the scan and i was watching and it just dawned on both of us and before the consultant even said um i said are they conjoined and he says yes i think they are and so with could join twins i mean really until they're born you don't really know the extent of what you're facing um and so really this is a situ it's so incredibly rare that if you as parents it's not something that you've sort of considered or even thought about so you start doing your own research and i've just had a little look this morning and i mean it's it's it's it's a tough road to tread that's for sure approximately 40 to 60 percent of conjoined twins arrive stillborn while around 35 survive only one day the odds of longer term survival can depend on where they are conjoined so really you're sort of getting through this pregnancy to get to the delivery to see what you're dealing with yeah that's it yeah and plus we're first-time parents you know we've never had the experience of even having kids before which you know was just an added layer to it as well uh yeah was the most difficult most strange first pregnancy i think the word we used quite often was we felt in limbo and there wasn't enough information we could cope and process the bad information actually better than no information it was the no information really yeah the number was the worst if you mean you don't know at least as you said bad information you can process and deal with it but not knowing anything was worse yeah and every every exam every appointment you're going through what do we find out next well so hannah you um came over to london for treatments three months before the pregnancy which i know i mean you work for the the nhs and uh and dan you uh run a fruit and veg business uh so this is you know a bit of a blow on the finances that's for sure to be away for three months what was the what was which will come we're gonna come to the finances in just a moment what was the the birth plan what were the thoughts um so the advice we were told actually early days at 13 weeks um when we first came over to london was that i would need to move at 26 weeks and and then a lot of the planning sort of come in then um but no the birth plan was quite well organized i have to say the support we had from both uclh and great ormond straight on the run up to the delivery was actually reassuring as reassuring as anything could be at that point and we didn't know how well the girls were going to be born we hoped for the best because they were so determined and the fact that we got to 35 weeks and itself was a miracle and so that we were trying to prepare and you know make the most of no one um what we were going to go through to prepare for worst case or very sick be obese um surprisingly the girls were born so well yeah it was a miracle yeah once those wee cries in the theater and when they were delivered um it just changed the whole the whole tone um of it all right um and we we really weren't prepared for it to go so well so where does that leave you now then because like i said you're you're kind of waiting for them to be born to see to see what the next stage is really so like you said that moment those cries you've got these beautiful healthy girls here so then what happens what's the next phase because we said crucially what you were hoping for was that they had individual hearts that was the sort of key which my goodness they did so what happens next for them they do so it's a lot of planning i am everything's been slightly delayed unfortunately as soon as we come home um we all got covered um so the surgery had been planned for the end of may and it's all been delayed so we're waiting on those sort of plans to be finalized and there's a lot of very smart people in great ormond street and there's going to be a lot of very detailed imaging um done with the girls and models created i do think a lot of it um will only be discovered during um the surgery but um we just suppose have to have faith that they've fought so hard to be here so far that um it will go well yeah we really we just have to have that faith and they're just they're very determined we girls yeah and they're absolutely beautiful so they will they're both going to grow up with different medical needs aren't they yeah that's right it's going to be a very long different challenging road for them and one wee girl might have um certain issues and another weaker might have a different set and that's going to be the challenging thing too and they'll be going for surgeries and probably for the rest of most of their lives um but we're hoping that their quality of life should be good they're just so determined that we really think that they're just gonna they're gonna fly through it i think it's going to be more challenging for us and we sort of said and before the girls were born we were sitting in great ormond street and we said it's a very scary place to be thinking you're going to have sick children but if we're coming back here for the next 18 years it means the girls have survived yeah so our whole perspective has shifted on what's good news and what's bad news and so and so sort of with your lives and you you know looking after sick children as we know from being here and hearing stories from other parents it is incredibly expensive all of your treatment is at great on the street you live in northern ireland you're going to have to travel hannah you're going to have to pretty much give up your job because you're going to have to care for the girls because they're going to need the treatment so financially this is putting a real stretch on you and i know that you've got some incredible friends who have been amazingly supportive emotionally but they've also set up a just giving page also yeah all the support has been amazing our just given pages sort of went from strength to strength our church even um was fundraising for us dan's customers have been amazing whether it's we get three tokens for the girls whether it's handmade blankets we just can't get over the generosity of people and you know it's very hard when you have pride to rely on that sort of generosity it's never a position you've ever been you know an all new to us like you yeah but i think it's just these regions they've just sort of worked their way into so many people's hearts and we feel like there's so many people on this journey with us and that support we will need we are going to need um for the coming years um with so much support as you hold them there they're actually in the shape of a heart they're absolutely beautiful um it's as you say it's uh it's a beautiful picture of diane holden that's like that yeah that's just houses and probably the best behaved babies we've ever had on this morning definitely definitely um lots we'll put your um just giving details uh on uh on our app so um if anyone you know would like to help um then as we as we said hannah you you work for the nhs so it's uh it's time maybe time to say thank you to you as well um take care lots of love all four of you family there you go you

Channel: This Morning

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Id: wyuc9yjdgf8

Length: 10min 10sec (610 seconds)

Published: Wed May 04 2022