HOW COULD I CHOOSE BETWEEN MY BABIES?

Nichola Luther, 41, faced an impossible decision

- FRANCESCA WOODSTOCK, TRACY GAYTON

As soon as I laid eyes on my husband, I knew he was The One. At 35, I was ready to settle down, and when a friend set me up on a blind date with Pete, then 37, in November 2014, I quickly fell in love. We married within seven months and couldn’t wait to start a family.

When our son Sebbie was born in October 2017, he was perfect. I loved being a mum, so when I fell pregnant again in September 2019, we were delighted. My stomach quickly ballooned, but as I counted down the days to my first scan, I experienced some bleeding.

At 12 weeks, Pete held my hand as the sonographer looked for a heartbeat.

‘Everything’s fine,’ she said with a smile.

She turned the monitor towards me, and I heaved a sigh of relief, but as I focused on the screen, I realised there were two babies.

‘Identical twins,’ she confirmed.

Overjoyed, I burst out laughing as Pete’s face turned white with shock. But the news quickly sank in and we were both elated.

We were referred to a consultant, who explained that having identical twins isn’t genetic, adding that, like many twin pregnancies, ours were monochorionic, meaning they shared the same placenta.

‘Your pregnancy is considered high risk, and there’s a chance of developing twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS), which occurs when blood and nutrients are distributed unevenly,’ a doctor explained.

I’d need scans every two weeks, but, if anything were to go wrong, living on the Isle of Wight our nearest hospital with specialist equipment was in Southampton, on the mainland.