A proud mum told how her daughter saved her twin sister’s life by sending out distress signals in the womb. Now aged three, Poppy McBride still protects twin Winnie, just as she did even before they were born.
Doctors delivered the twins when Poppy's heart rate began to waver on the monitor at 31 weeks and five days. But despite being the smaller of the twins at 1lb 11oz, she was perfectly healthy and nothing was wrong with her heart.
It was Winnie - weighing 3lbs 8oz - who doctors hadn’t been concerned about during the pregnancy that was born with underdeveloped lungs. She was whisked off to the intensive care unit.
The tiny baby only just managed to pull through. She needed surgery at 14 days old to relieve a build-up of fluid on her brain.
Mum Leah McBride, 28, was told by doctors that Poppy had saved her sister’s life and if they had waited any longer to deliver the twins Winnie would not have made it. Now aged three, the little girls are the best of friends and thriving.
Leah, a stay-at-home mum, from Lake Jackson, Texas, US, said: “Our doctors told us, 'I think your tiny twin saved her sister’s life.'
“Poppy’s heart rate had been all over the place, so they had to deliver but when she was born, she completely fine. They think she was sending out distress signals because she knew her sister wouldn’t survive if they weren’t delivered then.
“Even now Poppy takes care of Winnie. Poppy is still much smaller.
“I love having a big and little. They are so close – it’s sweet.”
Leah and her husband, Austin, 27, a crane mechanic, were ecstatic to find out they were expecting twins in January 2019 after a year of trying to conceive. But at 21 weeks they were told that their girls had twin-to-twin transfusion, where there is an imbalance of blood flow that causes one baby to become a donor and the other a recipient of all nutrients.
Leah was advised to terminate Poppy to give Winnie a better chance of survival. “There was already a 48 per cent difference in the girls’ size and they were worried that Poppy would have a heart attack as she was passing all the nutrient to Winnie and they thought Winnie might have a stroke," she explained.
“I didn’t want to choose one baby over the other. I told my boss who I was a nanny for, and she sent me the contact details of a family friend to call to get a second opinion.”
Leah decided to go to Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston and was told surgery could be more successful than previously advised. The next morning she underwent surgery where she was kept awake while doctors worked to steady the blood imbalance.
The procedure was successful, and Leah was sent home on bed rest. At 27 weeks and six days Leah’s waters broke and she was rushed to the delivery ward and given steroids to stop her labour.
“We needed to buy as much time as possible because 28 weeks was still too early to deliver them safely,” she said. Leah managed to hold on under 31 weeks and five days, when Poppy’s heartbeat dropped too low and wouldn’t go up.
Winnie and Poppy were delivered on May 24, 2019. “Poppy just needed a little bit of oxygen, but she was OK,” Leah said.
“She was smaller than a little elf on the shelf. Doctors said she was feisty.
"But Winnie, the bigger of the two, who I had never been concerned about, was very unhealthy. Her lungs were underdeveloped. They weren’t sure if she was going to make it.”
Their amazing story thankfully had a happy ending. And the twins are the best of friends.
“I tried to move their beds apart recently and they weren’t having it," said Leah. “They are both amazing.”
