British teen youngest mom ever to deliver conjoined twins
Laura Williams is only 18 and she is one of millions of women who delivered this week. But what makes her different from the others is that she delivered twins – and not just ordinary twins – but conjoined twin girls. That makes Laura the youngest ever woman to mother conjoined twins, according to the Daily Mail.
Conjoined twins are better known as Siamese twins. They occur in 1 out of 400,000 pregnancies.
The anomaly in the twins’ physical structure was detected on her 12th week of pregnancy. Laura was then advised to have an abortion. The survival rate for conjoined twins is rather low. Only about 5% survive 24 hours after delivery. Those who do, have to undergo several corrective surgical interventions to separate them. In the last 500 years, only about 600 conjoined twins were to have survived. Even those who survived had to live very difficult lives. On top of this bad news, Laura can potentially suffer from pregnancy complications that will prevent her having anymore children. Reaching a decision whether to abort or keep the babies was very difficult for Laura and her husband Aled, who already have an 18-month old daughter. In the end, the couple opted for the latter, a decision that was some people applauded and some people condemned. However, Laura and Aled wanted to give their twins the chance to beat the odds. For one thing, Laura’s twins are conjoined at the front, which give them good chances of survival, according to the doctors. Current medical interventions also increase chances for successful separation.
Laura delivered her twins by C-section today, November 26. They are reported to be healthy, according to Sky News. They are joined at the breastbone but have separate hearts. The babies are called Faith and Hope – very apt names, I would say. After all, theirs is a story of faith and hope.
