This Morning’s Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughy today spoke with proud parents of the ‘miracle’ conjoined twins Annabelle and Isabelle Bateson who were born safely just eight weeks ago making them not just one in a million, but one in 2.5million!
Attached from the chest to the pelvis, the girls share a bladder, bowel, and a fused leg - but crucially have separate hearts.
Speaking live from Northern Ireland, mother Hannah Bateson said:
“We went for an early scan and there was one heartbeat, and then we got the big shock that it was twins and that we had to see the consultant at the local hospital.
“Then as we saw another scan it dawned on us and I said, ‘are they conjoined?’, and he said ‘yes, I think they are’.”
She later added: “We hoped for the best. They were so determined and the fact we got to 35 weeks in itself was a miracle. We were preparing for the worst case [scenario] or very sick babies, but surprisingly, the girls were born so well. Once we heard those cries in delivery it just changed the whole tone. We weren’t prepared for it to go so well.”
On their next steps, Hannah explained:
“I think a lot of it will only be discovered during surgery, we just have to have faith. But they’ve fought so hard to be here so far that it will go well, we just have to have that faith. They are very determined girls.
“It’ll be very long and different challenges for them both, and they will probably be going - for surgeries for most of their lives, but we’re hoping that their quality of life should be good - I think they will fly through it and it’ll be more challenging for us!”
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