'Leaving our babies every night was horrible'

Ava and Amelie were born at just 26 weeks

"Walking away from your babies every night was just horrible."

Mum Nicole has been remembering the early life of her twins Ava and Amelie who were born at just 26 weeks.

It meant only Nicole got to go home at first, with the twins in intensive care at Birmingham Women's Hospital for 11 weeks. It was an anxious time, with phone calls in the middle of the night somewhat unnerving.

That was 2022 and things are much different now. The hospital has this week described the girls as healthy and "thriving", with mum saying: "We couldn't be prouder of how far they've come already."

It was at Nicole's 16-week scan that doctors realised one of her twins was growing much more slowly than the other.

"We found out we were having twins at six weeks and the pregnancy was going smoothly," she explained. "They then noticed at a scan one of the twins was growing significantly smaller, so we were referred to the fetal medicine team."

The twins were found to have Selective Intrauterine Growth Restriction (sIUGR), when one twin's growth is restricted due to an absent or reversed flow from the umbilical cord.

"We'd never heard of the condition before, and it was really scary knowing something was potentially wrong," said Nicole, who was living in Lichfield, Staffordshire, at the time.

At 26 weeks, she was admitted to the hospital for daily monitoring.

"[The smaller twin's] heart rate kept dropping... and taking longer to come back up," Nicole said.

"One of the consultants who looked after us said that it was time for them to come out now."

The twins spent 11 weeks being cared for on the neonatal intensive care unit

Ava and Amelie were born at 26 weeks and 4 days, weighing just 2.2 and 1.9 pounds.

"They looked so tiny and fragile," said Nicole.

The babies were intubated in the NICU before moving on to oxygen - but they faced more difficulties.

Amelie, the smaller twin, kept getting blood in her feeding tube, so had to be nil by mouth to avoid infection.

And when they were six weeks old, Nicole and the girls' dad Joe got a phone call to say Ava had developed Necrotising Enterocolitis (NEC), an infection which causes the bowel to become inflamed and damaged.

"It was horrible hearing the phone ring in the middle of the night knowing it was probably about the girls, but knowing we weren't with them," Nicole remembered.

"[But] they were both so strong and were real fighters all the way throughout."

Ava and Amelie are now said to be "thriving" at home

Nicole said the day her twins came home, 11 weeks after they were born, was a special moment.

"Walking away from your babies every night was just horrible, so to finally leave with them was a huge relief," she said.

So what are they like in 2025?

"They've got such different personalities now, but they're both very cheeky little girls," said Nicole. "They're both so strong."