From very early on in her pregnancy, Alyshia faced some tough challenges with the odds stacked against her twin girls, Faith and Charlie.
This is Alyshia’s story:
At only 15 weeks gestation, I experienced pprom with both babies losing all the amnionic fluid vital for their protection and development in utero. After pprom there was little anyone in the medical world could do as they were not at a viable gestation. All we could do was wait, watch and hope for a miracle.
Unfortunately, the steep odds the girls faced did not end there. Following 13 long weeks at home with weekly monitoring and bloods by the Mater PAC unit in Brisbane, I went into spontaneous labour. Faith and Charlie were born via emergency c section at just 28 weeks of gestation, weighing a mere 942g and 965g. Both girls required immediate breathing support due to their condition, with Charlie in particular requiring resuscitation.
Both girls were stabilised and immediately rushed to NICU with their dad following closely behind. In total, they spent 106 days in hospital healing, feeding and growing. Faith and Charlie were eventually back transferred to their local hospital where I was trained in tube feeding to speed up their transition home. They were discharged 3 weeks after their original due date on an oxygen supplement for Chronic Neonatal Lung Disease and with some nasal gastric feedings, but otherwise perfect.
Faith and Charlie are now 2 years old and although still petite girls, they no longer require feeding tubes or oxygen supplement. They had weaned from both long before their first birthday. They are now two adorable healthy and happy little treasures who love dance, swimming and being mischievous.
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