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Here's looking at two, kids! Meet the NINE sets of twins born at one hospital in just two months
Here's looking at two, kids! Meet the NINE sets of twins born at one hospital in just two months | Mail Online
Here's looking at two, kids! Meet the NINE sets of twins born at one hospital in just two months | Mail Online
Midwifery can be hectic at the best of times.
But staff at the Alexandra Hospital in Worcestershire have been twice as busy just lately, after bringing nine sets of twins into the world in a little over two months.
It’s just as well, then, that staff on the labour ward are able to call on their own experience — with five of the midwives being mothers of twins themselves.
Now the Daily Mail has brought together eight of the nine sets of twins born between March 19 and May 26 to be pictured together for the first time.
James: 6lb 5.5oz. Jude: 7lb 1oz. Non-identical, born May 26.
Parents: Angela, 32, and Martin Shepperson, 32, insurance workers, from Wythall, Worcs. Married for five years and have a daughter, April, three.
Angela says: ‘James, who was born first, is a real livewire, always wriggling. But Jude is very chilled out. He’s content to lie there, watching the world go by. Having a
toddler is more demanding — at least the babies can’t answer back!’
They were joined by identical siblings Zoe and Charlotte Spyer, who spent three weeks on the high dependency unit at the hospital in Redditch, after being transferred from a neighbouring hospital at two days old.
The twins pictured represent more than half of the 16 sets born since the start of the year at the hospital, with 13 more pairs due to be delivered before the end of the year — almost 50 per cent more than usual.
Despite multiple births often being associated with fertility treatments, all nine sets of twins pictured here were conceived naturally — four sets of girls and four sets of boys.
Only one mother gave birth to a child of each sex. The new arrivals have triggered the purchasing of a flurry of new people carriers, as well as buggies, prams and cots, with one couple even looking for a new house.
Grace: 5lb 2oz. Precious: 4lb 10oz. Born on April 1, in planned Caesarean at 34
weeks. Identical.
Parents: Alice Mhone and Francis Malazie, both 32-year-old support workers. Moved to the UK from Malawi eight years ago. They have another daughter, Mervis, 12.
Alice says: ‘We were given the option to terminate the pregnancy when it was discovered that both babies were growing in the same sack, which can cause serious problems, but they’re both healthy.’
The biggest baby was born to Jennifer Rouen, whose son Liam weighed in at 7lb 15.5oz, closely followed by his twin, Kieron, who weighed 7lb 12oz. Both were delivered at full term after Mrs Rouen was induced.
The smallest infant, at 4lb, was Finn Wildgust, a full pound lighter than his twin, Carter.
Their mother Michelle went into labour six weeks early. Joanne Harris and husband Adrian, 35, told yesterday how they have had to change Mrs Harris’s Rover 25 hatchback for a seven-seater Peugeot 807 — big enough to take three car seats for new arrivals Phoebe and Olivia, and daughter Liberty, four.
Mrs Harris, a customer services manager, aged 33, from Redditch, said: ‘We didn’t realise how much our lives would change, but we feel very blessed.
The girls get so much attention when we are out, and Liberty is like mother earth with them.
The only thing she doesn’t do is change dirty nappies.’
For Claire and Paul Todd, a new car is not the only expensive purchase they plan to make to accommodate twins Lauren and Sophie.
The couple, who have four other children aged between 18 months and 17, have put their three-bedroom terrace home on the market and are now
hoping to move to a four or five-bedroom house.
Zoe: 4lb 13oz. Charlotte: 4lb 6oz. Born on May 11 at 34 weeks by planned
Caesarean. Identical.
Parents: Marie, 33, a physiotherapist, and Kevin Spyer, 34, a warehouse worker made
redundant, from Bromsgrove. Together for 11 years, but married only last August.
Marie says: ‘Ours were real honeymoon babies — we wanted to wait until we were married to start a family.’
They have already swapped their old Ford Maverick 4x4 for a Mazda 5 people carrier, but the seven-seater is still not big enough to carry the whole family at once.
Claire Hinton, 24, and partner Daniel Richards said twins Joshua and Ethan are already ‘different characters’. Mr Richards, 30, who runs a building firm, said: ‘Joshua is the grumpy one whereas Ethan is very placid.’
Alice Mhone, from Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, endured a 40-minute detour to Redditch when she went into labour, because maternity at Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham was full.
Three of the nine mothers pictured gave birth naturally — Mrs Rouen, Angela Shepperson and Michelle Kahraman — while six sets were identical and three non-identical.
Miss Kahraman, from Redditch, was the first of the group pictured to give birth after going into labour with babies Carter and Finn almost six weeks early.
Orlando: 4lb 10oz. Martina: 4lb 13oz. Born May 5, after labour started six weeks early, but by Caesarean when it emerged the boy was breech.
Parents: Zuzana Mozdenova, a 32-year-old Slovakian national, and Leon Cole, 41, live together in Redditch. They have en together for a year-and-a-half.
Zuzana says: ‘The twins cry a lot and I’ve had to become very strong. I keep telling myself that it will get better as they get older and that once they start to smile and laugh it will be much nicer.’
Liam: 7lb 15.5oz. Kieron: 7lb 12oz. Induced May 6 at 38 weeks. Non-identical.
Parents: Jennifer, 31, and Paul Rouen, 36, of Rubery, Birmingham. Both work in logistics for BMW. They’ve been together for nine years and have another daughter, Ellie, three.
Paul says: ‘The boys have been no trouble at all. They’re already sleeping eight hours a night.’
Marie and Kevin Spyer’s prematurely born daughters, Zoe and Charlotte, were transferred to the Alexandra from the Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Worcester because of a bed shortage.
The girls were kept in for three weeks until feeding was established, after being born before a sucking reflex had developed. Mr Spyer, 34, from Bromsgrove, said: ‘The staff were fantastic. We would never have known Zoe and Charlotte were just the latest in a long line of twins they had been looking after.’
Steven Thornton, professor of obstetrics at Warwick University, said the spate of naturally conceived twins being delivered so closely together at the same hospital was probably down to little more than statistical chance.
He said: ‘You would need the same thing to happen at the same time of the year over subsequent years, or be able to show that the hospital was delivering more twins than would be expected year after year, before one could start to think that perhaps there was more to this pattern than just chance.’
Joshua: 4lb 3oz. Ethan: 4lb 10oz. Born on May 18, five weeks early by Caesarean. Non-identical.
Parents: Claire Hinton, 24, property manager, and Daniel Richards, 30, building firm boss, from Bromsgrove, Worcs. No other children.
Claire says: ‘It was a real surprise at my first scan. My dad had never told me my grandfather had been a twin.’
Carter: 5lb. Finn: 4lb. Born March 19, six weeks early. Natural delivery. Identical.
Parents: Michelle Kahraman, 26, and Chris Wildgust, 35, unemployed sheet metal
worker, from Redditch.
Michelle says: ‘Chris actually has twin boys with his previous partner and
my grandad’s sister had twins too, so it was certainly in the family.’
Phoebe: 5lb 13oz. Olivia: 5lb 12.5oz. Born April 14 at 37 weeks by Caesarean. Non-identical.
Parents: Joanne, 33, a customer services manager, and Adrian Harris, 35, an
ambulance service supervisor, from Redditch. They have another daughter, Liberty, four.
Joanne says: ‘I was in hospital for two weeks after having them and my mum gave up her life for six weeks to come and look after all of us. Adrian’s mum has also been brilliant. It’s exhausting finding time to do everything.’
Last year, the hospital’s birth rate was 1,796, including 20 sets of twins — one pair fewer than in 2008. In response to the increasing numbers of twin births, midwife Karen Halfpenny set up a support group for pregnant women or new mothers of twins, which meets monthly at the hospital.
Mrs Halfpenny, who has five-year-old twin girls herself, said: ‘We are seeing a tremendous amount of twins being delivered at the Alex, but the staff in the delivery suite are great and they take it all in their stride.’
She said around 50 midwives work at the hospital. The parents of the remaining set of twins born during the two month period did not wish to take part in the interviews.
Lauren: 5lb 14oz. Sophie: 6lb 7oz. Non-identical. Born May 17, Caesarean at 38 weeks.
Parents: Claire, 36, administrator, and Paul Todd, 37, a plumber, from Redditch. Together for 20 years, married for 13. Other children: daughter Leigh, 17, sons Danny, 12, Lewis, seven, and Alex, 18 months.
Claire says: ‘We never planned on so many children, but we love it.’
