How At-Risk Twins Save Each Other in the Womb

A set of identical twins has overcome the odds and survived a high-risk pregnancy by cuddling each other in their mother's womb for 34 weeks.
 
Rowan and Blake Lampshire are not your average twins. The pair were "monoamniotic-monochorionic", meaning they shared the same amniotic sac.

Doctors told their mother, 27-year-old Hayley Lampshire and their father Charlie, that the pregnancy would be dangerous as one or both of the twins could die. 

"It was all pretty worrying at the beginning," Lampshire said to Inside Edition. "If that did happen then it would be likely that we wouldn't know (and) we couldn't do anything to prevent it which was the scariest part."

The condition causes the umbilical cord to knot and cut off the food supply.  It could potentially choke one of the children. 

UK doctors warned that the risk of these complications would only increase as the twins continue to grow. But miraculously the twins stayed alive.

Hayley received a scan almost every week to check on the babies and was happy to see that they were constantly cuddling or holding hands.

"They were always really close and tucked up together," Hayley said. "Each time they seemed to be doing well."

The babies were later delivered via cesarean section. 

"The boys were born 36 seconds apart and were taken straight to special care," Hayley said. "They had fluid on their lungs and were struggling to breathe on their own."

Rowan and Blake stayed in the hospital for three weeks, but their parents were eventually able to bring them home. 

Hayley says that even outside of the womb the boys like to be really close to one another.

"They settle a lot better when they are together," she said. "They chat together (and) sleep in the same crib. They have a really good bond. They are healthy and happy."