Looking at twin mum Beau Yeung playing happily with her sons, Max and Teddy, you wouldn’t know that Beau initially struggled to bond with Teddy.
Her struggle to bond with one of her twin sons followed a tough pregnancy with them both, when she was diagnosed with Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS). It’s a rare but life-threatening condition that affects 10 to 15% of identical twins that share a placenta (monochorionic twins). TTTS can also occur in triplet or higher order pregnancies with monochorionic twins.

New statistics released this week by the charity, Twins Trust, show that 66% of families we surveyed with twins, triplets or more faced medical complications during pregnancy. Beau has shared her story in the hope of raising awareness of the complications that women face during their multiples pregnancy.

Doctors warned Beau and husband Darren during the pregnancy that they could lose the babies due to the TTTS.
She said: “The pregnancy was quite a worrying time- I cried constantly and I felt stressed. I know my eldest daughter asked her nan why I was crying so much as I was pregnant and should be happy.
“Initially we thought it was just one baby. We had a private scan and it just showed one baby.
“At the 12-week scan we saw two heads. The first thought I remember vividly was ‘ we need a bigger car’ and how we were going to afford it?”
The mood swiftly changed at the scan when the babies were measured and doctors revealed they weren’t happy with the results.
Beau added: “We didn’t think they were going to make it, so I didn’t buy anything.
“We didn’t tell our two eldest girls that we were having twins until around 18 weeks. We didn’t tell them about any of the scares we had either.”
One scare led to the couple being rushed to hospital, and at this point they feared they might lose Teddy. Luckily the babies were ok at this stage and the specialist laser surgery to treat TTTS was not required.
“I went in for a routine scan, which I had been having twice weekly because of the Siugr (Selective intrauterine growth restriction) and the blood flow to Teddy reducing. It was all part of the constant monitoring. They said the blood flow was nearly at zero and if it reversed, that was the danger area.
“They gave me a steroid injection and I had to stay in overnight, in a ward with other women actively going through labour. That was a horrible scary evening.
“In the morning, I had a magnesium drip, which was horrible and another steroid to help with heir lungs.”
The twins were born that day, 14 February, via C-section.
Beau added: “Max came out first, and they had to work on him. Teddy came out next and he was completely silent and floppy and they really had to get him going to wake him up. That was quite scary. I had a five-second look at them and then they were whisked off to intensive care.”
The following day, Beau was able to meet her twins properly but the next few months were tough with lengthy NICU stays, two months for Max and four months for Teddy. Max was also diagnosed with PVL – cysts on the brain.
Teddy had to undergo multiple blood transfusions, was unable to regulate his temperature and had a double hernia operation too.
“It was crazy,” said Beau. “I was back and forth from hospital every single day and pumping constantly. A counsellor at the hospital said I was disassociating from everything and going into autopilot with the boys. They think it was the trauma, they thought I was grieving the pregnancy because I was told all the way through Teddy wasn’t going to make it, and possibly not Max.

“It was the stress of not knowing what was wrong with the boys. When we had them both home, it was hard. I was with Max and had an amazing bond with him but with Teddy I was very distant towards him. I struggled to show any affection. The mental health team would come and talk with me, plus a baby massage teacher came to the house to help the bond, and it definitely worked. I was constantly worried Teddy was going to die.
“The bond I have with Teddy now is amazing.”