Bethany and Hazel  

To mark Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) Awareness Day, we spoke to Kathryn, whose life changed forever in July, when her twins, Bethany and Hazel, were born  just 28 weeks into her pregnancy.  

Kathryn, told us the story of her twin’s surprising arrival, and the comfort and support her family found amidst one of the most frightening times of her life.

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“Early on the morning of the 25 July, I began bleeding, so I was taken down to delivery. The bleeding had stopped by 2pm, and by 7:30pm I was back on the ward. We thought we could relax again, so my partner, Steve, left the hospital. But at 8:30pm, the bleeding started again. Steve had just walked through the front door at home when he was told to make his way back to the hospital. The situation was serious.  

As the situation became more serious, I was put on magnesium to help the babies’ brain development. After discussing our situation with a consultant, it was decided that the safest thing to do was get the twins out.   

Suddenly, the room was abuzz with an anesthetist and NICU staff. The second Steve arrived he was given scrubs and we went straight into theatre.  

Despite knowing and feeling I was in safe hands, things went from bad to worse. Following my epidural, I began to hemorrhage. An alarm was sounded and I was given a blood transfusion. The twins were then delivered.  

Bethany was born first, still in her water sack (the amniotic sac that cushions the baby during pregnancy) and still attached to the placenta. She weighed just 668 grams. Hazel, on the other hand, managed to headbutt her way through her sac and started to cry. It’s impossible to put into words how reassuring that sound was amidst the fear.  

Immediately the twins were put on oxygen, wrapped in a NICU-grade ‘plastic bag’ which works to keep tiny babies warm as they’re transported. They were then taken to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit with their wonderful dad.  

The twins took their rocky entrance into the world in their stride, already breathing by themselves on a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machine. These devices use mild air pressure to keep your airways open.  

In the weeks since birth, both twins have required further care. Bethany has been intubated due to a sore under her nose. She has also undergone three blood transfusions, as she became the ‘donor twin’.  The donor twin is a baby in a Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS) pregnancy, who passes more blood through the placenta than they receive. So, in this case, Bethany had been passing her blood to Hazel. Bethany has also been screened twice for sepsis and has a hole in her heart which will require open-heart surgery.  

The twins’ progress has been different. While Bethany remains on a low flow of oxygen, Hazel has, amazingly, been breathing independently since week three. At the beginning of September, Hazel was discharged, but luckily, she’s able to spend a lot of time with her sister as we are staying at Cots for Tots House, just a stones’ throw from Bethany’s bedside.  

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Thanks to your support, Cots for Tots provides home-from-home accommodation for families with babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at St Michael’s Hospital so they can stay close to their cots even when they’re far from home, as well as state-of-the-art equipment and music therapy. Thank you for helping families like Kathryn’s stay close when it matters most.