A young mother, who was told by doctors during her pregnancy to abort one of her twins in order to save the life of the other, has given birth to two healthy baby girls, due to her decision at the time not to listen to the advice she was given.
Carmelle Hartgrove and her husband, Steve, were thrilled when they discovered they were having twins, but that joy quickly turned to despair when a 10-week scan revealed the twin girls were unlikely to both survive to full term.
Hartgrove was told that her unborn twins were both monoamniotic and monochorionic, conditions meaning that they shared the same amniotic sac and placenta .
The couple were warned at the time that if they neglected to abort one of the twins, the girls only had a 30 percent chance of being born at all. Nevertheless, the Hartgroves were adamant, without even needing to discuss the matter, that they would keep both babies.
The babies, Charis and Connie, are healthy baby girls who receive a lot of love from their parents.
“I look at them both now and think about what miracles they really are. In the end, it was not a difficult decision. A 30 per cent chance of survival was good enough for me.”
In speaking to the Daily Mail about finding out she was pregnant with twins, Hartgrove said, “At the 10-week scan when I was told there were two flickering heart beats, I couldn’t believe it. I started laughing with happiness. I was giggling so much that Steve had to ask me to stop as you couldn’t see the scan because I was moving around too much.”
Regarding the moral dilemma she and her husband were faced with at the time, the then-pregnant mother shared, “How could I choose between the two? I would always look at the twin which survived and think ‘I killed someone to save you. Steve and I didn’t even need to have that conversation – we were united on the decision without having to discuss it.”