To everyone who sees them, five-month-old Ame and Lia look like twins. And they were indeed born to the same mother just minutes apart. Amazingly, however, the sisters are not twins. They were conceived three weeks apart thanks to a million-to-one medical rarity.Doctors had to carry out an emergency caesarean to deliver the babies because they were both lying awkwardly in the womb. Ame was born at 29 weeks and Lia at 32.
Miss Spence, 29, said: "It is hard to get our heads around the fact that I was pregnant with two babies at the same time and they aren't twins. “When I explain it to people they get very confused."
Even more amazingly, Miss Spence became pregnant twice in three weeks while she was taking the contraceptive pill. She said: "For that to happen twice in three weeks is just unbelievable."
An explanation for this unusual case:
The girls were conceived through a process known as superfetation, the term used to describe the formation of a foetus whilst another foetus is already present in the uterus.
This occurs when eggs from two separate menstrual cycles are released, as opposed to normal non-identical twins where more than one egg is released in a single cycle.
Although common in animals it is rare in humans, but it can result in a twin or multiple pregnancy. It is diagnosed when the foetuses show a marked different in development.
The girls are technically not twins. Identical twins occur when one egg splits into two and non-identical, or fraternal, twins occur when two eggs are released and fertilised at the same time.
So even though Miss Spence's babies were born on the same day, they are not twins as they were conceived three weeks apart.
Source: DailyMail
Tags: Caesarean | Birth | Superfetation | Amelia Spence | Ame | Lia | Baby
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