Sis having twins at 27 weeks. One has stopped growing weeks ago and may die. Please offer any advice/help.

[mumblesmummy]

Little bit of background of what's going on:

I'm nearly 38 weeks pregnant, my sister is nearly 28 weeks pregnantwith twins. We row soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much but absolutely adore each other in reality. We're a very close family.

At the moment we've got a lot of stress. Our nana is in intensive care (I've written about it on 'relationships') and my DP is in a hospital 80 miles away having surgery right now. So the family are all trying to pull together for each other.

Today my sister went for a routine scan and found that one baby hadn't grown in 4 weeks. Her BP has been sky high so she has foetal monitoring every week, and it has been fine. However, the scan showed that one baby isn't getting oxygen through the cord, and so tonight, she's being taken to another hospital and the babies are being taken out (c section). She has been given a steroid injection to mature the babies lungs today. Both have heartbeats, but obviously they BOTH have to be born even though it's only one that's poorly. Therefore they're both in trouble.

What are the chances of the babies surviving? She's had IVF and she's been terrified all pregnancy. Now this. Please can someone offer any help/advice/opinions/anything at all.

no idea just bumping this for you, hope its good news too

I'm so sorry to hear that. I don't know much as I think it's one of those problems that twins can have. I think babies born at 25 wks have a 50% chance of survival and those odds keep increasing every week.
I was in hospital for 3 wks before my ds was born and there were so many women there who'd had premmie babies before at 24+ wks and were now children.
The technology today in the NICU is fantastic and the positive thing is that your sister has had her steroid injections to develop the babies lungs.
I, too, had to have a c-section straight away when they found my baby hadn't grown in two weeks and there was no blood flow through the umblicial cord, although it was because of a growth restriction caused by high bp whereas your sister because it's twins.
The main thing is that the hospital want to keep the baby in as long as they can but as soon as it's, or the mother's health, is compromised it's time to come out. I used to get really upset at the hospital and one of the midwives comforted me by saying that once my incubator failed, it was time for the other incubator to take over.
I really hope that everything works out ok. It won't be easy - having a baby in intensive care, or special care, is absolutely heartbreaking no matter how well the babies are doing - but it makes you appreciate them more, even when they're fit and healthy and home. Your sister is lucky to have someone as caring as you and all you have to do is be there for her.
Hopefully someone else may come along and shed a bit more light on it. Wishing you sister and you all the best xx

MM, so sorry to hear this

BeachBunni, what a lovely post

Haven't got experience to add but didn't want to read and run. Good luck to you both xxxxxxxxx

oh MM what a worrying time for you all
wishing your sister and her lo's all the luck in the world

I know two people who had twins at this around 27 weeks -

One pair I first met when they were around 18mo and you would never have thought that there had been any problems. Their ages were still adjusted to allow for them being so premature but they were up to speed for their adjusted ages.

The other pair I have never met but I used to work with their Mum who keeps me posted with heir progress - the smaller one was very poorly for a while and they both had health implications from being so premature but as of a couple of months ago when I last heard from their mum they had just turned one and were doing well - her ds (the bigger twin) was thriving and her dd was catching up nicely after a slow start. They are not expected to have any health issues growing up.

I really hope your sister's twins do as well.