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Monoamniotic Twins Born To Woman Who ‘Didn’t Know’ She Was Pregnant

By Effie Orfanides
Published on: 04:08 PST, Oct 16, 2014

Monoamniotic twins were born to a woman in Iowa who didn’t even know that she was pregnant. According to Life & Style Magazine, Shelby Magnani started experiencing very bad, unusual pains on her left side and decided to go to the hospital. Of course, she had no idea that the doctor was going to tell her that she was in labor!

“They told me I was six months and told me to get down to the ER. They did an ultrasound and told me it was twins,” Magnani explained. After the ultrasound, however, doctors realized that Magnani was 34 weeks along… and that these babies? Were coming. After an emergency c-section, Magnani and her partner James Croskey welcomed Ava and Anna weighing about four pounds and three pounds respectively.

Monoamniotic twins are extremely rare. In fact, there is a mortality rate of 50 percent for babies that share one placenta and one amniotic sac. While Ava and Anna will spend the next several weeks in the NICU but are both expected to be okay. As with any baby who is born premature, Ava and Anna will be closely monitored until they gain significant weight and all of their organs have developed completely.

“They’re both just little miracles, it could have been so many things that went wrong that didn’t. I love them, I love them more than anything,” said the new mom.

According to Mail Online, Magnani was very lucky that there weren’t any complications with her delivery. According to Dr. Jennifer Krupp with Perinatal Center of Iowa, women pregnant with monoamniotic twins are usually closely monitored starting at about 24 weeks due to the potential complications inside the womb.

“The entanglement of the cords is what we worry about. We bring the patients into the hospital at 24 to 26 weeks, so we can monitor the babies several times a day, because we know the risk of one or both of those babies dying is fairly significant.”

As previously reported by the Inquisitr, a set of monoamniotic twins made headlines back in May. A middle school teacher from Orrville, Ohio, gave birth to the “mono mono” twins, who were actually born holding hands! Jenna and Jillian spent a few weeks in the hospital before going home with their parents — and their big brother, Jaxon.

[Photo courtesy of Nevit Dilmen via Wikimedia Commons]

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