Like many couples across the nation, Rebecca Roberts and her partner, Rhys Weaver, tried several years to have their first child together.
However, things took a turn when the couple learned that Roberts was expecting her first child. According to Good Morning America, the mother was on fertility medication.
When doctors performed her third ultrasound 12 weeks into her pregnancy, Roberts said doctors discovered a second baby.
"It was really, really shocking to be told there were two babies instead of one," Roberts said. "Then they told me there was a three-week size difference between the two babies that the doctors couldn't understand."
According to Roberts' doctor, David Walker, an OBGYN at Royal United Hospital in England, the doctors had difficulty understanding what was happening because the occurrence was so rare.
Walker confirmed that Roberts' pregnancy was diagnosed as superfetation, an incident where a second, new pregnancy happens during the initial pregnancy. This happens when eggs are released from the ovary on two separate occasions making them fertilize and implant into the uterus.
"My initial reaction was how had I missed the second twin," Walker said. "And following this [I] was slightly relieved that it was not my mistake but a quite extraordinary pregnancy."
In this specific case, her older twin measure three weeks older than the young twin. This is reported to be one of the most significant age differences known in superfetation twins.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Roberts learned that she was expecting twins without her partner by her side. Weaver was not allowed to attend appointments due to restrictions.
"When I found out we were having twins, he was out in the parking lot," Roberts said of her partner. "There was such a mixture of emotions."
Roberts gave birth last September to a son, Noah, who weighed 4 pounds, 10 ounces, and Rosalie, who weighed just 2 pounds, 7 ounces.
"She was only a 30-week gestation baby who hadn't grown properly at the end," Roberts said of Rosalie. "Her placenta never really grew properly."
Rosalie spent the next 95 days in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), while her brother Noah spent just over three weeks at a different NICU.
The family was reunited just before the holiday season when Rosalie came home.
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