I’m Helen and I’m lucky enough to be mum to boy-girls, twins who were born at 26 weeks in 2011. Starting a family wasn’t plain sailing but on our second round of IVF we struck the jackpot when a twin pregnancy was confirmed at our early scan. Everything was going smoothly, right up to the moment when, at 26 weeks, my water broke in a restaurant toilet while I was out for dinner with my work friends. At the time I didn’t realise it was my waters breaking, I was in the loo after all, I thought the babies must have been bouncing on my bladder. Thankfully my friend, a mum of two herself realised something wasn’t right and phoned an ambulance when she got concerned about how I was feeling. My friend and I were whisked to the hospital, and I was taken straight to delivery, still completely oblivious to the fact that I was in labour. From here on, things are a mixture of crystal clear or blurry memories. I must have talked to the midwife and a doctor quickly arrived on scene who confirmed I was in labour. The room filled with people, equipment was rolled in, I’ve no idea how many people were there but it was a lot! A team for each baby and a midwife and doctor for me. My husband, arrived, just in the nick of time. 59 minutes after my friend called an ambulance twin 1 arrived, naturally with no time for any pain relief, followed 5 minutes later by twin 2. When twin 1 arrived, I was amazed, she cried, a very reassuring sound. The team told me it was a girl then we got down to business with twin 2, who was breach. When twin 2 arrived it was very different, silence, I’m sure the medics must have been talking to each other, maybe even talking to me but all I remember is silence. No crying and no telling me if the second baby was a boy or a girl, I had to ask, “a boy” someone replied but there was a very different feeling in the room this time. We had been warned in advance that the babies would be put into plastic bags, to protect their skin. I had a quick glance at each of my tiny babies in their plastic bags and incubators, we were told to take some pictures on our phones, and they were rolled down to the neonatal unit. Thankfully we had some names planned, we didn’t know if we were having boys or girls, so we had 3 boys names and 3 girls names prepared, a quick conversation on our shortlisted names ensued. To be honest, I think I could have got away with calling them anything I wanted, if I’d got a favourite name that my husband wasn’t keen on, that was the time to roll it out. We easily agreed their names and that’s where the rollercoaster of parenting began. We phoned our parents who joined us at the hospital and in the early hours of the morning we all went down to the neonatal unit to meet our babies. We were told that there wasn’t room for them both at this hospital and as Twin 1 was more well of the two, she was going to be transferred to another hospital within the Network right away. At around 6/7 hours old Twin 1 was taken to another hospital, in another county, wrapped in bubble wrap. I hadn’t even been able to hold her before she was taken away. The following day I sent My husband and his parents to the other hospital where Twin 1 was. I wasn’t allowed to go anywhere, and I was desperate that Twin 1 shouldn’t be alone. I got regular updates from My husband, while I waited with Twin 2 as a move to another hospital was arranged. We were assured that the Unit Teams would reunite us as soon as bed space became available. At 1-day old Twin 2 was transferred by ambulance, while my dad drove me, sadly I wasn’t allowed to travel with Twin 2. They settled Twin 2 into the Neonatal Unit, but he was clearly very poorly. Meanwhile Twin 1, still at the other Hospital was taken off the ventilator at less than 24 hours old. Even though I had updates from My husband, it was an anxious wait for me, desperate to see my baby girl who had been taken away from me, thankfully the team did manage to reunite us. We were warned these things can take hours and to try and get some sleep. In the middle of the night, I wandered down to the unit and Twin 1 was finally there. The doctor on duty that night was amazing and seemed to instinctively know what Twin 1 and I needed, at 32 hours old, I finally got to hold my baby girl for the first time. I saw that doctor again in 2025 at an EMNODN conference and even after all this time I immediately knew this was the person who helped me hold my daughter for the first time. I don’t always remember the names of the people that looked after us on the neonatal units and I don’t remember everyone that worked there but there are some faces, I will never forget. Twin 1’s neonatal journey was remarkable. She suffered very little setbacks. She opened her eyes at 5 days old, was taken off CPAP at 5 weeks old, moved to low dependency at 7 weeks old and discharged into my care at 11 weeks old. I’m not saying it was easy, there were minor bumps in the road but compared to Twin 2, I was always confident Twin 1 was coming home with me. Twin 2’s path was a lot rockier. You name it, he had it. It took a long time to stabilise Twin 2. He was 1 week old when the team closed his PDA with a dose of medication. Poorly little Twin 2 didn’t get his first mummy cuddle until he was 9 days old. It was such a long and painful wait. “Is he well enough for me to hold him” was a daily question, I’d sit with him and talk to him, but I was desperate to hold him. Twin 2 didn’t open his eyes until he was 7 weeks old, it felt like a sign that he really wasn’t ready to be in the world. Although Twin 2 came off the ventilator at 2 weeks old he was on CPAP for months, eventually diagnoses with CLD he also had suspected NEC, Liver trouble, ROP, Pneumonia, Thyroid trouble, the list goes on. My biggest fear was not taking two babies’ home with me but that's exactly what I did. When Twin 2 was more stable we were all transferred to another hospital not far away for “feeding & growing” and at that time it was a much better environment. The unit was open plan, and it was very loud, with very little privacy, the parent accommodation at the time also wasn’t ideal. I was in a single room on the maternity ward, setting my alarm in the middle of the night to express. As the pumps were better on the neonatal unit and it meant I could check on Twin 1 & Twin 2 I would often be found wandering between the maternity ward and neonatal until in the middle of the night. I’ve not seen it in person, but I understand the facilities are much improved since the renovation in 2024, from the pictures and video tour I’ve seen it looks like the new unit will really help parents and families during their neonatal experience. The hospital became our home for 4 months. I was that parent who never left. I was so lucky to be either, in the transitional care ward, or up in the hospital hotel for the time Twin 1 & Twin 2 were there. I was still determined to breast feed them both, so I continued with my overnight alarm to express and to pop and check on them, the nurses seemed to get used to me appearing at 2 am to say hello. I stayed in for the whole time, I did as many ‘cares’ and as many feeds as I could, I read to them both and did kangaroo care as much as possible. At one point I was worried I would be sent home with Twin 1 and have to leave Twin 2 in hospital but thankfully that wasn’t the case. The team did everything they could to support me taking my two babies’ home with me. After 105 days in neonatal care and with Twin 2 hooked up to a portable oxygen tank we all came home together, 2 weeks after their due date. It wasn’t all sad, I formed friendships with other parents, taught myself how to knit with the help of one of the nurses and had a good laugh at the expense of the nurse who asked my if my boy:girl twins were identical, although it did terrify me at the time, how is she going to keep my babies alive if she doesn’t know they can’t be identical? It’s surprising the number of people who ask this, when the kids were toddlers, they’d laugh when people ask them this and reply “No, Twin 2 has a willy.” We had excellent support and care from the teams, and we lived close enough that they were able to come and do home visits while we got settled at home and I had regular calls from my health visiting team, but the trauma and anxiety was long lasting. Somehow, we had to transition from Twin 1 & Twin 2 the 26 weekers to Twin 1 & Twin 2 the people. Which is pretty hard going when Twin 2 was on home oxygen, and we seemed to be in the hospital every week for appointments. My mum used to say, “don’t forget to smile at him, you always look so worried when you look at him” I was, I was terrified. Between them we had over 40 outpatient appointments in their first year at home. Even though they were still alive, it was difficult to know if we were ‘safe,’ if they would be ok long term, we didn’t really know what the future held. Slowly but surely Twin 2 who had 8 consultants on leaving the unit was discharged one by one and eventually we realised his health was ok. Not because anyone told us but because he stopped going to hospital. Whilst their milestones and development was monitored up to the age of 2, the future still wasn’t clear, and we would have benefited from further follow up for reassurance. In all honesty, I don’t think I stopped this kind of worry until they were in secondary school, thankfully now I’ve got the parenting worries of a normal family with teens, but it’s been a very long journey to get here. I made photo books for them both, so they always knew their story and saw their baby pictures from an early age. I didn’t want it to be a shock. The two things that I would say to other families experiencing a neonatal stay would be firstly to accept any mental health support you are offered and seek it out, if it isn’t offered. Sadly, once I left the unit my mental health support stopped and it wasn’t there later on when I really needed it, for me it was after we’d been signed off from hospital that I realised the impact the experience had on my mental health. Secondly, I would encourage you to be brave and be your child’s advocate, both whilst on the unit and afterwards, feel empowered to ask questions and demand support if you need it. It can be hard when dealing with experts and complex health needs, but you know your child better than anyone, so keep pushing for professional support if you need to. Especially when it comes to school, I found there was lack of understanding of prematurity and the impact it can have on education, which meant it was difficult to get the right support at primary school, but we did get there by the time the transitioned to secondary school. I got very frustrated when primary school told me that being premature shouldn’t define my children, it sums up the general ignorance around the subject of prematurity. I wasn’t wanting it to define them; I was wanting them to get the appropriate support for their needs. I’ll leave you with the positive news that despite being born at 26 weeks, weighing 770g and 680g and spending the first 4 months of life in hospital, my miracle babies are both fine, no, not just fine, they are fantastic! We’re no longer in the GPs every winter for recurrent chest infections, I’m tempting fate when I write this, but I can’t even remember the last time either of them had a cold. Twin 2 has some extra help at school for Dyscalculia and Dyslexia which runs in our family but if you met them today you wouldn’t be able to tell they’d had such a traumatic start in life. I’m not sure I’ll ever get over it but thankfully whilst they know the basics of their journey being prem no longer defines them. They are thriving young people, last year they achieved their Chief Scout’s Gold Award, this year they achieved their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh and are about to embark on their GCSE’s. We’re so very lucky and I’ll never forget the kindness and support from the people that cared for us during their neonatal experience.