About one in every 80 births in Norway is a twin birth, and about 25% of them are so-called monozygotic. When the English couple Nicola and Todd Bailey had twins at Rotherham General Hospital in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, in England, it was even rarer.
One of the pairs of twins was born with Dᴏᴡɴ sʏɴᴅʀᴏᴍᴇ; the other was not. This is an event that only happens in one in a million cases.
The twins, Quinn and Harper Bailey, were born on February 15 of last year, but 38 minutes apart. The birth proceeded as normal, and no one had any suspicions during the pregnancy.
The doctor who received the twins apologized to the couple, but they would not hear of it. The Baileys fell in love with both of them immediately and wouldn’t trade it for anyone in the world.
Nicola says in an interview with the English newspaper Metro that it is clear the twins have a strong bond between them and that they light up when they lie next to each other.
The couple has a son named Lucas from earlier, and he thinks it’s great to have two twin sisters, although Harper is a little different than her sister Quinn.
Although the twins are like most twins, there are some differences between them. Among other things, Harper will undergo a heart operation at the age of six. She has a ᴄᴏɴɢᴇɴɪᴛᴀʟ ʜᴇᴀʀᴛ ᴅᴇꜰᴇᴄᴛ, which is common in children with Dᴏᴡɴ sʏɴᴅʀᴏᴍᴇ.
Although the married couple emphasizes that they do not differentiate between their twins, it has nevertheless brought about a change in their lives. The worst is when people stare at them when they are out or comment that the children are cute – even if one has Dᴏᴡɴ sʏɴᴅʀᴏᴍᴇ.
Therefore, the couple will use the opportunity to inform others about what Dᴏᴡɴ sʏɴᴅʀᴏᴍᴇ really is so that more people understand the situation they are in. They want to say that it is not the end of the world, neither having twins nor the fact that one of them has Dᴏᴡɴ sʏɴᴅʀᴏᴍᴇ. In fact, they are a little proud of being “one in a million” and would not have removed Harper even if it had been discovered during the pregnancy.
Here at home too, the debate is often lively about whether children with Dᴏᴡɴ sʏɴᴅʀᴏᴍᴇ should be removed by ᴀʙᴏʀᴛɪᴏɴ if it is detected early in pregnancy, but as the Baileys so aptly put it, children are children, and you love them anyway.
