One Mum's Story: Leigh-anne

The twins shortly after birth

I had an easy and great pregnancy - not one problem throughout the time. I got to 34 weeks and the midwife and doctor talked to me about the birth. I was told I had to have a caesarean section as I had one with my first which was an emergency caesar and I went under a general anaesthetic so we thought that seeing as my husband didn't see him being born we would have a spinal block this time - no problems they said, we can do that.

So I got to 38 weeks and the day had come to meet our new babies - a boy and a girl we were told so I was very anxious to meet them both. We were told about the operation and what would happen. We went downstairs to the theatre and that is where it all went belly up so to speak. I got the spinal block in my back and I said I felt sick and started to vomit. They said it was normal that my blood pressure had gone down, I knew that could happen so didn't worry, they gave me drugs to fix it.

All through the surgery I was vomiting. They kept giving me drugs to try to stop it. At this point all I could think about was the babies so they started the surgery and about 5 minutes into it my son was born then 1 minute later we had another boy born so it wasn't a girl after all which was fine! They were both healthy and that is all that mattered. My husband gave me a kiss and said it was alright then he and the babies were taken upstairs where I would go soon after the operation was done.

They finished off the surgery and I then went into the recovery area to rest, then I would go and see the babies. The nurse touched my hands and said, "You're cold", and I said to her I couldn't feel her touching me. She touched my face and that was the only spot I could feel touch.

I got another blanket then the nurse put the monitors onto me and yelled to the anaesthetist to look at the screen so he rushed over to me. At this stage I was wondering what was going on. All they kept saying was - "do you feel funny?" - which I didn't, I felt fine. Then they said you are in aterial fibulation - my heart was beating too quickly at 195 beats a minute (not good) so they kept pumping me with drugs to fix it. Nothing was working at this point - I had about 20 people around me trying to work out how to fix it but all I could think was if I die I will never meet the twins and never see my husband and two and a half year old again.

At that point another doctor came in and started to tell me he had to take me back to theatre to restart my heart and I said I had no idea what he meant - you need to talk to my husband so he did.

My husband came in crying so I then knew it was not good at all. He told me what they were going to do so he got the nurse to bring the boys down so I could meet them. That was the nicest thing to finally get to meet them. I said to the doctor, "don't let me die, I have 3 children that need me".

Then they rushed me off to theatre to restart my heart. It went back after one shock and they then took me to ICU for the night so they could watch me. All was fine through the night, I had an ultrasound of my heart and it all looked well so I got to finally go and see my babies and hold them 36 hours later - oh that was the nicest thing to hold them.

The twins now

When I got home I was very lucky to have plenty of support to help me with the kids and to let me to get as much rest as I could. I probably could not have done it with out all the support I had - I'm very grateful to everyone that helped.

My two and a half year old was excellent - he loved helping feed the twins and helping bath them - he is a great big brother!

I found some days harder than others with three under the age of three but I got through it all and not one problem with my heart. Now I look back at it all and thank God I got through it all. I have a strong will and also great support to help me.

Now the boys are nearly two and are going strong. I also have recently had another baby and it was a girl. All went well with that caesar but I didn't risk that happening again so I went under a general anaesthetic.

We are all well and living life to the fullest.

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