UK’s most premature twins ‘thriving’ at school

Twins who were born over a week before the abortion limit and given “zero chance of survival” have now started school.

Brother and sister Harry and Harley, who are non-verbal autistic four-year-olds, started at a special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) school this month.

The twins are thought to be the most premature babies to have survived in the UK, born at 22 weeks and five days. Doctors initially took them to the hospital’s ‘Serenity Suite’ as they expected them to die, but their health gradually improved.

‘Heart-warming’

Mum Jade said: “There was a time where I couldn’t even imagine getting to this point where they are even able to go to school – especially back in hospital when they were so tiny.”

She described how excited they were to go to school: “They were just smiling, it was just so heart-warming to see that they are in the right place for them – thriving and coming home ready to do it again.”

The mother encouraged parents in similar positions to persevere, because although it was a battle to get a placement, it was a “massive relief” to know “they are learning and being around other children”.

Hope

The twins celebrated their first birthday with a BBC interview, where Jade shared their story: “We hope Harley and Harry’s story will give people hope, as there wasn’t a lot when I was looking for other people with babies of this kind of gestation period.”

The mum previously explained that when Harry and Harley were born, doctors called the delivery a miscarriage and said it was not procedure to monitor such babies or provide steroids to improve their chance of survival.

She said: “How could it be a miscarriage when I could feel the babies? They were alive, but I was shocked to discover that they weren’t going to be monitored during the birth.”

Viability

In Britain, abortion is available for most reasons up to 24 weeks, the age at which babies are deemed to be ‘viable’ outside the womb.

It was not until 2019 that the British Association of Perinatal Medicine updated guidance to advise that it is possible for doctors to save the lives of children born at 22 weeks. Previously, it stated that they had no chance of survival.