A Scary But Healthy Mono-Mono Twin Pregnancy

by Anonymous
(USA)

I have 4 beautiful children, 2 boys and 2 girls. My sons are 7 and 2, while my girls are identical twins age 5.

My husband and I were overjoyed when we found out that we were expecting again when our son was almost 2 years old. We loved him so much, and we couldn't wait to add to our family. We went in to the doctor at about 7 weeks to confirm the pregnancy and make sure everything was developing normally. Imagine our complete shock when she informed us that not only were we prgnant, but we were having twins! She said everything looked fine and sent us on our way.

At about 11 weeks, I came in for another appointment and an ultrasound. This time when the doctor was looking at the ultrasound screen, she had a funny look on her face. When I asked if something was wrong she told me that it looked like my twins were sharing an amniotic sac and that she wanted me to go see a perinatologist that afternoon to have him confirm the diagnosis.

I called my husband in tears, and he met me at the perinatologist's office, where he confirmed that I did in fact have a Monoamniotic-Monochorionic (mono-mono) pregnancy. He explained that this meant that the embryo had split after the sac had begun forming, and therefore our identical twins were sharing an amniotic sac and placenta. This in itself was not cause to worry, but there was a very high risk of their cords getting entagled endangering the life of one or both twins.

At that time, there was no evidence of entanglement, but I would have to be carefully monitored with ultrasounds and doppler imaging scans, which monitored the blood flow to the babies. Amring ourselves with information from doctors and online sources, my husband and I made it through the next 6 weeks relatively normally. I had bi-monthly scans and things were lokoing good with no entanglements or complications.

In my 17th week, however, that all changed. My ultrasound showed that the twins' cords had become slightly entangled. There was no compresison - which is the real danger - and I was ordered to take it easy and my scans were now to be weekly.

I quit my part-time job to stay home and take it easy per my doctor's orders, and trust me, with a toddler to run after, that in itself was not easy. The weeks flew by, however, with no significant changes. Then, in week 28 of my pregnancy, the doppler imaging scan showed that there was a slight slowing of the blood flow to Twin A meaning that some cord compression was occurring. My husband and I were terrified when we heard this, especially when we were told that I needed to be admitted into the hospital for 24/7 monitoring.

To make a long story short, I was in the hospital for 6 weeks before our girls were born via c-section. In that time, there were no dramatic scares or problems. The blood flow to Twin A varied depending on the positions of the babies, but there was never enough of a drop or danger to warrant delivering them extremely prematurely. The c-section went off without a hitch, and my darling daughters were born without any major complications. They were small - 5 lbs, 1 oz and 5 lbs, 5 oz respectively - but absolutely perfect. It was a scary experience, but completely worth it when I look at my girls.