Alex Grice listened to the sound of exhausted mothers sleep around her. It was early morning on the maternity ward and the hospital room was quiet. Wide awake, she glanced over at the empty cot beside her bed.
It was meant be the happiest day of her life. The then 19-year-old had given birth to twins just hours earlier – 15 weeks prematurely. But she couldn’t see her babies. They were downstairs in the neonatal unit fighting for their lives, wires attached to every part of their tiny bodies.
Moments later, the teenager received the phone call she was dreading. One of her twins, Ava, had suffered a serious brain haemorrhage. She wouldn’t survive the night and Alex needed to say her goodbyes.
“I can’t even explain it,” Alex, now 22, told the Manchester Evening News. “It’s just the worst pain in the world. She survived the night but they warned me she might not ever walk or talk. You can imagine the run of emotions I felt.
“The experience now is all a bit of a blur. We went down and were asked if we’d like the priest to come and bless her. Things took a turn for the better as quickly as we had to say goodbye.
“We sat by her incubator side and prayed for a miracle that she’d pull through. We were told from then on it was touch and go and to be thankful for every minute.
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“I was lay there with no babies in this empty bed and a quiet room. It was meant to be a moment when you’re lying there with your children ready to go home. It was so awful; how could it get any worse? Even talking about it takes me back.”
Miraculously, baby Ava survived her ordeal – but it wasn’t all plain sailing for the tot and her brother Archie. In total, the twins remained on the neonatal ward at Bolton Royal Hospital for a total of 120 days following their birth in July 2019. Their original due date had been October 17 that year.
The pair needed 32 blood transfusions, oxygen for 12 months of their lives, lifesaving operations and constant care. When they were born at 25 weeks, the babies weighed a tiny 1lbs and nine ounces.
Alex, from Ramsbottom, recalls the moment her waters broke unexpectedly while attending a friend’s baby shower. “I was on my way home when my waters broke,” she continued.
“It was that early – the twins were only 25 weeks along – that there was no anticipation of giving birth. I went into labour that day. I was at the hospital and was told to go on bed rest but they kept me in for observations.
“They tried to send me home, there was no anticipation that the babies were coming there and then. I had a bit of back pain and they said to take some paracetamol and come back if it carried on hurting.
“The paracetamol didn’t do anything at all. I went back, they did an inspection and like a light switch they realised the babies were coming – and they were coming now.
“It was on a Saturday and I had a baby moon holiday booked on the Monday morning. I was like, ‘I’m going on holiday, actually. I won’t be able to have them today’. They told me I wasn’t going on holiday – the babies were coming!”
Ava arrived first after 45 minutes in theatre. Archie came second, one hour and four minutes after his sister was born. The tots were so tiny they could fit into Alex’s hand.
Despite their rough start in life, the pair, now aged three, are perfectly healthy and “thriving” at nursery. “We knew we were going to be in the neonatal unit for a long time,” Alex added.
“We went through a lot; it was really hard emotionally – more so because you just want to be able to help and there’s nothing you can do. They are inside an incubator and can’t do things like nappy changes with a full-term baby. You would have to keep them up and they were covered with wires around their hands and feet.
“We have seen them grow, but on the outside. We watched them develop from 25-week-old babies to full-grown babies, just not inside a stomach. It was a long journey, I’ll be honest. It wasn’t easy.
“We’re really fortunate. We saw a lot of loss while we were on the ward. You carry the weight of the neonatal unit for the rest of your life.
“The twins have no recollection of it and they don’t understand it. But what happens there is so intense and traumatic, you carry that forever. We just want to be able to give the unit something back. We want to give back to the people who helped us.”
The family are now hoping to raise funds for the Royal Bolton Hospital neonatal unit as well as Ronald McDonald House Charities and Bliss. Ronald McDonald House Charities helps house families nearby their children while they are in hospital while Bliss supports families with babies in the neonatal unit.
Alex’s mother, Nicola Orrell, is set to host a third charity masquerade ball in aid of the charities while also raising awareness of World Prematurity Day on November 17.
The night will include masquerade decor, a three-course meal, drinks on arrival, live music and entertainment. It’s hoped money raised from the ball will reach their target of £20,000. The ball is taking place on November 19 at the Last Drop Village Hotel in Bolton.
For more information, you can follow the link to the tickets page by clicking here.
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