'I went to hospital expecting twins but came home with just one baby'

Keeley Weeks was terrified when she prematurely entered labour extremely early at just 23 weeks. The mum-to-be was expecting identical twins but tragically only came home with one of her children. Some may find Keeley's story difficult to read as it deals with premature birth and baby loss.

It was thought Keeley's babies might not be considered viable and the mum-to-be was terrified that neither would survive when she went to hospital. She had visited triage on numerous occasions leading up to her birth with various symptoms of labour and felt it was clear that something was not right.

In February 2023, Keeley visited Colchester Hospital, where it was decided that she was contracting and pre-term labour had begun. The mum-to-be said: "I couldn’t allow myself to believe it was happening. It was far too early, and I kept telling myself that the contractions would calm down and go away - that it would all be a false alarm."

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As the hours passed, Keeley’s contractions increased and when she realised her babies were on their way, she burst into tears, assuming they would not survive the labour. There were more than 53,000 babies born too early in the UK in 2022, according to pregnancy and baby charity Tommy’s. More than one in ten women will experience prematurely - before 37 weeks.

Keeley said: "They were too little and the hospital was not equipped to care for two babies at this gestation. I was devastated, terrified and felt like I had let them and my husband Ollie down.

"Shortly before the ambulance was ready to take them to the Rosie Hospital in Cambridge which has a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), the boys arrived both weighing 520g - roughly the weight of a small bag of sugar."

"They were whisked away by neonatal staff and after the chaos of delivery calmed and the room fell silent I was left numb and in disbelief that my precious twins were born 17 weeks too early," Keeley added. "We said goodbye to our boys when they were ready to be transferred to the other hospital, unsure if they would even survive the journey."

Keeley and her husband, Ollie, drove to the Cambridge hospital, around an hour and a half from their home, in silence with worry and exhaustion. The couple were shocked by how tiny and fragile their sons looked in their incubators. Hooked up to machines that were keeping them alive, their eyes were fused shut and their skin looked like red jelly.

Keeley remembered: "I was able to give them what is called a comfort hold placing one hand on the top of the head and one on the feet. Stroking the babies’ skin would have caused damage and it felt so wrong to be holding my babies, standing completely still, my hands shaking and through the doors of a plastic box."

Sick with stress, exhausted and not knowing where to turn, hospital staff guided the couple to Chestnut House, a ‘Home from Home’ run by charity The Sick Children’s Trust. It was only a few floors below the NICU, yet it felt worlds away from the clinical environment above.

"The room was quiet, clean, and warm," Keeley said. "It had everything we needed, from a comfortable bed to shared kitchen and living areas and was only minutes from our babies. Just knowing we didn’t have to think about where we would stay lifted a huge weight off our shoulders. I don’t know how we would have managed otherwise, physically or emotionally."

Chestnut House gave them a private and quiet place to rest and restore as they went through the most traumatic experience of their lives. But the morning after they had arrived in Cambridge, they returned to the NICU to receive the heartbreaking news that baby Arlo Ray had deteriorated.

"We were told there was no more that could be done for him and that we could hold him for a short time while he was still on life support before he passed away. Ollie held him first, then me and his life support was removed and he passed away in my arms.

"Those precious moments were possible because we were close by. I can’t bear to think what would have happened if we hadn’t been staying right there in the hospital. If we’d been at home, hours away, we might not have made it in time."

Keeley had to navigate feelings of intense grief while trying to remain strong for Avi as he fought for his life. He faced a myriad of health challenges, including sepsis, kidney problems and breathing difficulties. He was on a ventilator for 60 days and the couple spent sleepless nights keeping vigil by his bedside, taking refuge in Chestnut House.

"Knowing we were just a short walk from him at any moment gave us so much peace of mind," Keeley explained. But the couple were told to ‘expect the worst’ and they spent hellish weeks in limbo.

He had a large and discoloured abdomen as well as incidents of slow heart rates and drops in oxygen levels. But he battled everything thrown at him and at 100 days old he was finally fit enough to make the journey back to the couple's local unit. From there he went from strength to strength with the support of the fantastic neonatal team.

After a short period longer of expert care, Avi was ready to come home albeit with a long list of medication as well as being on oxygen. He has since been weaned off all of these and is a happy and thriving 21 month old with a corrected age of 17 months.

Keeley said: "He’s energetic and joyful, babbling away and getting ready to walk. His journey isn’t over, as he’ll continue to be monitored for the effects of his early birth, but his progress is a testament to the care he received in the NICU and the support we had at Chestnut House.

"Our twins were identical and I often find myself looking at Avi and picturing Arlo there with him. It’s nice to see what Arlo would have looked like and I start to wonder whether they would have similar personalities. Avi is a very happy, cheeky boy and my husband and I could not be more proud of him for everything he has overcome."