Laura Hussey, aged 30, from Sheffield gave birth to twins after they made a surprise entrance into the world 7 weeks premature and will be taking part in Jessop Superheroes on the 9^th of June to raise vital funds for the Jessop Wing.

The twins Luca Ralph Hart (born 3lb 13oz) and Molly Ada Hart (born 4lb 10oz) were born by C-section less than a minute apart from each other on the 4^th August last year and taken straight to Jessops Neonatal Unit.

Laura went into labour unexpectedly at 33 weeks pregnant and was placed on zinc and magnesium drips to try and prepare the babies lungs and brains for an early arrival into the world.

Initially, the problems arose in the first trimester when Laura developed extreme morning sickness which caused her to lose over a stone in weight and be signed off work. She then developed “obstetric cholestasis” – a liver condition which causes the bile and acid levels to build up in your body.

The main affect for Laura was “unbelievable itching” – this resulted in weekly blood tests to monitor her liver function and traces to monitor the twin’s heart rates.

Laura said: “As long as I could feel the babies moving I wasn’t too panicked, and we were reassured hearing their heartbeats every week at Jessops but I think every pregnant woman will always worry until they have their baby (or babies) in their arms.

“Paul, my partner said he was very concerned throughout the entire pregnancy but tried to focus on sorting everything else out around me so I didn’t have anything else to worry about.”

Although the C-section went smoothly the twins were rushed to intensive care and Laura was not able to see her new born babies until 8 hours later once she was able to walk again.  

Laura said: “When I went into labour I just kept remembering everything I had seen on all the baby development apps saying things like ‘if your baby were to be born today it would stand a good chance of survival.

“Luca had to have six hours of CPAP oxygen when he was first taken into intensive care but after that he was mainly there for ‘feeding and growing’ – which he has done very quickly ever since. Molly needed quite a lot of support and was ventilated to begin with before her breathing support was finally removed when she was 11 days old.

“After things had settled down I received so much support from the nurses and feeding team in getting started expressing milk which was then used to feed the babies through their tubes. This then progressed into support transitioning the babies away from the tubes and onto feeding from me."

Many of the nurses and healthcare assistants became like friends

Laura continued “The neonatal nurses taught us how to care for our babies in their new environment. We were taught how to do their ‘cares’ which involved reading their blood pressure, changing the probe measuring the oxygen saturation of their blood and changing their nappies amongst the many wires.

“When the time came, they helped us to bath the babies for the first time and provided endless support with my many questions. Many of the nurses and healthcare assistants became like friends over those few weeks as we spent most of our waking hours sitting with the babies and chatting to the staff.

“The extra facilities available to parents were great too; it really is a special place full of very special people (and babies)."

We were ready to get our babies home and start a normal life

“When we found out we were taking them home we were so unbelievably relieved, it was like we’d been released. As lovely as everyone had been we were ready to get our babies home and start a normal life together. Little things such as not having to leave them when we wanted to have something to eat seemed like a huge deal.

 “Both twins are doing really well now. They are nearly nine months old and bringing all the joys that any baby would who is teething. They’re great fun, laughing and smiling (most of the time!) and don’t seem to have any lasting effects.

“Life has changed completely but I feel incredibly lucky to have such beautiful, happy babies especially considering the first few weeks. Tiredness has taken on a whole new meaning but I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

You can donate to Laura’s Just Giving page here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/laura-hussey2

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