It’s MONO/MONO twins 😱. Desperately seeking reassurance

[MUMMYOFBOYSINCORNWALL]

Hi everyone, I’m 38 and have three sons who are my entire universe. (Age 9,8 and 5)

We were very, VERY SURPRISED to learn
I am expecting again - currently 11wks 5 days. The thought of raising 4 children has been scaring me to death these past 6 weeks. Apart from feeling like death and being more sick than I ever thought possible!!!

I’m 38 and had horrendously complex pregnancies with the boys. They were all born by c-section and I had preeclampsia with the eldest. Because of this and due to the fact that there are very limited options for private antenatal care near to where I live, I decided to opt for the harmony test and scans at the Fetal Medicine Centre, Harley Street today, where I have learned that I am expecting MONO/MOMO twins.

I just don’t know what to do or say or think. I’m so frightened. I’ve made the terrible mistake of googling MCMA twins and I’m not reading anything positive at all.

I’m sorry for the essay, I just feel like I’m in free fall and I am just desperately hoping someone will tell me that they’ve lived this with a positive outcome. Will I truly need to be hospitalised from 28weeks? What about my boys?

Sonographers often misdiagnose mcma twins early on as the dividing line is very feint. The vast majority of the time they do in fact find the dividing line later on into the pregnancy and they are after all mcda.
Saying that, I know a couple of mcma twins where were absolutely fine and born health at 35 and 36 week.

Congratulations 💐

Thank you @neversleepagain I am so glad to hear that you know of some who have survived.

I’m aware that this type of twin is easy to misdiagnose but in my case it’s pretty definitive I’m afraid . I was scanned for over an hour on an HD state of the art ultrasound machine in Harley Street-I’m having another scan at my local hospital tomorrow and putting a treatment plan together with my obstetrician and specialist midwives.

I feel so dreadful-conflicting emotions is an understatement. I was so angry with myself for letting myself fall pregnant and seriously considered termination. I even made and appointment and cancelled it last minute. Now I’m devastated to think that they may not survive. Going to have to take it one day at a time and just hope.

What are the risks?

Hi Sunlov, the main risk is entanglement of the umbilical cords. It’s almost inevitable. They share an amniotic sac and placenta, although they have separate umbilical cords. They have to be delivered early at 34 weeks, the list goes on really. It’s all quite scary. They will be closely monitored but there’s nothing they can do to intervene apart from drain amniotic fluid from the sac to give them less room to move and tangle.

Oh dear. Let's hope they're not gymnasts then! It must be scary.

My friends twins are 12 and in great health but the pregnancy was far from straight forward and she delivered at 29 weeks. Get all the information you can but be reassured that the medical team will be experienced in managing such pregnancies - no point in sugar coating it, the risks are far higher than standard twin pregnancies but modern healthcare is excellent

I was told my sister and I were MCMA twins, we were born nearly 30 years ago and were induced at 37 weeks with a vaginal delivery.

I didn't actually know it was a complicated type of pregnancy until I was much older. Maybe back then they didn't know as much?

I hope you have an uneventful and smooth pregnancy, and the biggest congratulations!

@Sunlov-absolutely 🥴 Thank you @GinaCarbonara and @stucknoue. It’s amazing as 30 years ago I’m sure there was little way of even being able to tell you were MCMA. I’m clinging to our bodies being miraculous as we know they are. Xx

I know! My mother's pregnancy was pretty smooth apart from in the last month or so when she had trouble walking- I think that was the main reason she was induced actually. I was spread out like a star taking up all the room and my poor sister was squashed up and pressing into my mother.

When we were born I was fat and bright red and my sister was white and a bit sickly. She recovered quickly though and we were a surprisingly healthy weight for ID twins.

It is the most unusual and special of relationships, it really is.

I’ve always been totally fascinated by twins. I bet it really is the most incredible bond. I hope I get to watch these little ones I have on board experience it.

Hey, hoping I might be able to help and answer any questions you've got I just gave birth to this type of twins 11 weeks ago and had a natural vaginal delivery.. We are all completely fine and healthy although they were expecting my babies to be in icu they didn't.. they didn't need any help at all, and we was all home the following day, trust me I know how your feeling I was so scared the whole way through my pregnancy. We had a few big scares and I felt like I lived in the hospital. The amount of appointments and check ups were very draining and the constant worrying, the pregnancy was awful the sickness was an absolute joke. The first 5 months I was bed bound. So unfortunately it's no walk in the park and the labour was even worse unfortunately I wasn't given all the right information about the labour and how complicated it actually was until I was in active labour and it was pretty much to late to change anything so hopefully your not in the situation. But my advice would be try not to stress as hard as that is and don't read to much online. Just listen to the health team and also remember they always give you worse case so you know what to expect if things do go wrong. If there's any questions you wanna know just message me. Hope I can help x

Do you have a Facebook account? There is a really helpful group on there called Britain’s Parents of Twins. I can’t recommend it enough. I had a challenging pregnancy with my MCDA twins and it was so helpful speaking to parents going through similar things.

I only saw this morning a post from a dad who had just welcomed 35 week MCMA twins, he has a picture of their platted cords.

Please try and not panic, oh and join TAMBA! Xx

Hi Mummyofboys. Congratulations on your pregnancy and I’m sorry it’s so stressful. I have MCMA twins.

There are some good MCMA twin support groups on Facebook I would recommend joining for lots of success stories. (Lots are American but “UK MCMA twins support group” is UK based). It is a high risk pregnancy but the odds of success are higher than Google suggests (I read 50% chance of survival a lot but the specialist I saw said it is more like 80% once you get to 20 weeks). Inpatient care is unusual in the UK (but the norm in the US) and momos are typically delivered by C section between 32 and 34 weeks with regular scans leading up to that point.

My babies were born at 34 weeks, were only in the hospital a week (although that seems to be unusual) and are doing so well thank goodness. I was so worried throughout the whole pregnancy.

It is horribly stressful and I think all you can do is take one day at a time. Good luck and I hope all goes well for you.

Feel free to PM me if you want to ask anything.

This was obviously posted a while ago now. Any updates? How has your care been?