This Cool Video of Twins In Utero Is Going Viral for An Important Reason
From Redbook
Multiples seem to hold a special fascination for many people – see: Beyoncé and Amal Clooney, among many other twin-pregnancy celebs. Unfortunately, the higher the number of babies carried, the riskier the pregnancy tends to be. For twins, one such risk is Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS), a condition affecting identical twins who share a placenta.
English parents-to-be Sarah and Dan Maund dealt with this scary diagnosis in their twin pregnancy back in 2014. TTTS – which causes the babies to receive unequal shares of blood and can potentially lead to disability or even death in one or more – can be treated with risky laser ablation surgery, a procedure Sarah Maund underwent. The video taken by her surgeon during the operation is fascinating everyone.
The incredible footage shows eerily clear images of the Maunds’ identical boys inside their mother’s womb at 22 weeks. The video, taken by surgeon and multiple births expert Professor Basky Thilaganathan at St. George’s Hospital in London, allowed the worried parents to see their unborn kids in amazing detail. Feet, hands, and even toenails are visible in the footage.
For the Maunds, the footage was invaluable – it allowed them to clearly see their twins for the first (and potentially only) time (even post-surgery, the boys only had a 70% chance of survival, according to the Mirror). After the surgery, the couple needed to wait an agonizing 6 hours to find out whether the babies still had heartbeats. They decided to share their footage now in order to raise awareness about the condition – the video was posted to YouTube by the Twins and Multiple Births Association (Tamba), along with a link to donate to Tamba’s TTTS-fighting cause.
Thankfully, the Maunds’ story had a happy ending: Sebastian and Henry Maund were born healthy on September 14, 2014 and are now thriving toddlers. But not every TTTS story ends that way. Earlier this year, a Facebook photo of a little boy sitting next to his twin’s grave went viral. His brother had died in utero as a result of this placenta condition, and their family is also fighting to raise awareness for TTTS.
(h/t Babble)
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