Beaconsfield mother discovers her twins were conceived from 2 eggs 10 days apart

June 10, 2016

Susie Chong and Matthew Beasley from Beaconsfield received shock news
Couple’s twins ‘result of incredibly rare phenomenon called superfoetion’
Foetus begins to form in the womb where another is already growing

Lucy Laing For Mailonline

Published:
04:54 EST, 10 June 2016

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Updated:
12:11 EST, 10 June 2016

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Parents of 16-month-old twins are in shock after learning that their sons were likely to have been conceived more than a week apart.

Parents Susie Chong and her fiance Matthew Beasley, from Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, were told by medics that Leni and Jenson could be the result of an incredibly rare phenomenon.

Called superfoetion, the quirk of nature means that a foetus begins to form in the womb where another foetus is already growing.

Leni and Jenson look like any other twins, but doctors believe they could have been conceived more than a week apart.Pictured with parents Susie Chong and her fiance Matthew Beasley who were told the shock news

The sonographer said that she had only ever seen similar suspected cases a handful of times

The couple first discovered their babies were even more special during a routine 12-week scan.

A sonographer at Wrexham Park Hospital in Slough found that one of the babies was a lot smaller than the other and suggested the pair could have been conceived separately from two different eggs ten days apart.

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Susie, 36, who already has a daughter Isabelle, ten, from a previous relationship, and a son Hendrix, two, with partner Matthew, 32, a commercial manager, said: ‘We were so shocked to hear what the sonographer said about the twins.

‘She said that she had only ever seen it a handful of times in her career, and that it was incredibly rare.

‘From the sizes of the twins on the scan, she put their two conception dates at about ten days apart.

Susie and Matthew with the whole family including Isabelle, ten, from a previous relationship, and Hendrix, two

‘We had never even heard of it before and I never knew it was possible.’

Susie had been shocked to discover she was pregnant again so soon after giving birth to son Hendrix.

When he was only a few months old, Susie went to the hospital because doctors suspected that she had a cyst on her ovaries and she was due to have it removed in an operation.

But a routine pregnancy test carried out before the operation revealed some unexpected news. She was six weeks pregnant.

She said: ‘I was so shocked to discover I was pregnant again so soon after giving birth to Hendrix. We hadn’t been planning on extending our family again so soon.’

It meant that doctors were unable to carry out the operation to remove the cyst as it would have been too risky for the pregnancy.

And there was more shock in store for the couple when Susie went for her a scan at seven weeks.

She said: ‘I lay on the scanning table and the sonographer told us that she could see two heartbeats. I couldn’t believe it, that I was actually pregnant with twins.’

Then there was a further shock for the couple five weeks later when the sonographer told them that she believed they had been conceived up to ten days apart.

Susie’s pregnancy went smoothly, and scans showed that the twins were both growing well – although the twin who was conceived last, Leni, (pictured left) remained smaller than her brother throughout the pregnancy

Susie added: ‘It was such a shock. I must be super fertile. I conceived Hendrix whilst on the contraceptive pill and then conceived twice in ten days.

‘I don’t know who was more shocked, Matthew or myself. Even at the early pregnancy scan the sonographer had noticed that there was a considerable size difference between them. Then after the 12 week scan, they said they thought they were about 10 days apart in conception.’

SUPERFOETION

Superfoetation can occur when a woman continues to ovulate after her first conception.

The phenomenon is the simultaneous occurrence of more than one stage of developing offspring in the womb.

In humans, an embryo forms from a different estrous cycle, while another embryo or fetus is already present in the uterus.

This is extremely rare in humans and there are only 25 cases probable documented cases throughout history, where the woman ovulates and conceives again after becoming pregnant.

Susie’s pregnancy went smoothly, and scans showed that the twins were both growing well – although the twin who was conceived last, remained smaller than her brother throughout the pregnancy.

They were born last December at Wrexham Park Hospital, Leni weighing 3b11 and her bigger brother Jenson at 4Ib11.

After ten days in the special care baby unit they were allowed home to join their family.

Susie, who has been supported by TAMBA (The Twins and Multiple Births Association) said: ‘It was lovely to finally be able to bring them home. Our family is definitely complete now. Matt had said that he would like to have seven children, but there is no way that is happening.

‘I gave birth to three children within ten months, and thats enough for any mum. If I was to fall pregnant again, goodness knows how many I would have!’

Twins are usually formed when an egg splits or when two eggs are produced during one menstrual cycle.

In the case of Leni and Jenson it is suspected to have happened when two different eggs from two different menstrual cycles are released and the foetuses grow at different times.