Mother Delivers Premature Twins At 22 Weeks And They’re Barely Larger Than A Soda Can

Apr 08, 2019 by apost team

New babies are always a blessing, but for some parents, the excitement of their children's birth is overwrought with fear.

According to the World Health Organization, roughly 15 million babies are born prematurely each year, and that number is rising. A baby is considered full-term at 37 weeks. Jade Ewoldt's twins, Keeley and Kambry, were born at just 22 weeks.

According to the Inside Edition, Ewoldt developed a condition called twin-twin transfusion syndrome whilst pregnant, a disease of the placenta that only occurs in identical twin pregnancies. In TTTS, one of the babies winds up with a lower blood volume than the other. Ewoldt underwent a medical procedure to try and correct the disease, but it came with a risk.

The result was a premature delivery. At birth, Keeley weighed just 1 pound at birth. Her sister, Kambry, was just 13.4 oz. Their mother describes them as being roughly the size of a soda can. To put things into perspective, the average baby born full-term is around 7 pounds. The odds were against the twins.

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The survival rate for babies born at 22 weeks is just 10 percent, but luckily, the Iowa hospital's they were at had a much higher rate.

"“We’ve been working very hard with this population for the past over 10 years,” Dr. Jonathan Klein told the Inside Edition.

“With very dedicated NICU, dedicated nurses, respiratory therapists, nurse practitioners, we have survival now of babies born at 22 weeks that are admitted to the NICU of 65 percent, which is about 150 percent higher than the national average is.”

Keeley and Kambry were born in November 2018. Their original due date, March 24, is the earliest they could go home.

While they had a rough start in life, the love, compassion and tireless work of their parents and the staff at the NICU have carried them through to the finish line.

Was your child born prematurely? How are they doing now? Tell us their story, and other occasions people beat the odds, in the comments!

Make sure you pass this amazing story of hope along to your friends and family.