Premature babies celebrate 1st Birthday

Published on: 25/09/2016

Premature twins born just after 23 weeks are about to celebrate their first birthday.

Jaxson and Cadence Moore, from the US, weighed just 1lb 1oz and 1lb 6oz respectively, and doctors did not expect their survival. Their parents Jourdan, 32 and Matt, 33 adopted the twins as embryos as they were unable to conceive naturally, and their friend offered to become their surrogate. Mrs Moore has severe Crohn’s disease, and the only medication that she responded to (methotrexate) is not recommended in pregnancy. Following a long wait for adoption, they turned their options to embryo adoption.

Approximately 650,000 fertilised eggs are left over at any one time from couples going through IVF in the US. Couples who have completed their families are left with the choice of continuing to pay for storage, have them discarded, donate them for research or offer them through embryo adoption.

23 weeks into a healthy pregnancy with the twins, their surrogate, Hollie Mentasana, experienced pressure in her lower region. Suspecting a bladder infection they went to the hospital, to discover that she was actually 10cm dilated. Doctors explained to the parents that their babies had limited chance of survival.

Mrs Moore explains: “The doctor looked at me and said the babies are coming right now and at 23 weeks they will not make it. I didn’t want to believe it, as we’d come through so much to reach that stage. Still, we had no choice but to prepare ourselves for their deaths. They were given the option to resuscitate and give life support, or opt for palliative care – with doctors advising them to choose the latter option. The survival rate for resuscitation was 21 per cent. The doctors wanted to let nature take its course, but we couldn’t give up on our miracle children. Thankfully, we didn’t and now we have two gorgeous one-year-olds. It’s amazing.”

Three months after they were born, they were able to go home, and they now receive regular physical and occupational therapy to aid their development. Cadence has been diagnosed with chronic lung disease and has to have oxygen at night. Initially they both had a condition called retinopathy of prematurity, an eye disease where abnormal blood vessels grow in the retina causing a detachment from the back of the eye. Both have improved, but Jaxson requires glasses for short-sightedness.

Mrs Moore explains: “It wasn’t until two thirds of the way through our hospital stay that we were sure they would be fine. I was in every day and saw babies that didn’t make it, despite being born bigger and stronger than mine. I’m so blessed and lucky that we had a good outcome, but that’s not the case for everyone.”

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