"Miracle" twins who were born at 22 weeks have finally headed home from hospital - five months after they were given a 0% chance of survival at birth.
Little Harley and Harry Crane were conceived via IVF and were born at 22 weeks and five days, more than a week before the abortion limit. Mum and dad Jade and Steve had been trying for a baby since 2007.
Babies born at 22 weeks are not classed as legally viable and medical intervention is sometimes not offered. But the tough brother and sister have amazed doctors - who initially told Jade to "prepare to say goodbye".
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Jade, 39, has spent the last five months staying by her brave babies' sides in the new-born intensive care unit (NICU) at Queens Medical Hospital in Nottingham. She and Steve took their twins home on Monday, just two and a half weeks after their original due date.
The former mental health nurse and addiction counsellor, who lives in Derby with her husband Steve, 52, said: "I'm so proud of my babies - they're little fighters. They're doing absolutely amazing. They're doing all the things that we were told they wouldn't do - they're crying, they're surviving.
"The doctors were saying the babies wouldn't survive at this gestation. I was still two weeks away from what the UK classes as viable and the babies were given a 0% chance of survival. It was only because I was at a teaching hospital and that the babies were born with signs of life that they chose to intervene medically."
After being at the hospital for 140 days, Jade said leaving the team was "really emotional". Steve added: "The absolutely stunning doctors, nurses and surgeons have all been part of the making of this moment. It's hard to say goodbye to them but I hope I never see them again."
Jade and Steve had quite the journey to finally have their twins after 11 years of treatments - including eight cycles of IVF and several implantations of frozen embryos as well. They had been trying to fall pregnant naturally for three years and Jade had suffered an ectopic pregnancy before they decided to start IVF in 2010.
After three tragic miscarriages on IVF, Jade discovered that she had an overactive immune system whereby her body would reject the pregnancies. The couple moved from a fertility clinic in Nottingham to one on Harley Street in London - believed to be one of the best in the world - where Jade was prescribed lots of different types of medication in order to combat her immune system problems.
Jade said: "On our eighth cycle of IVF, we had two embryos transferred which both worked and we ended up with boy and girl twins! I couldn't let myself believe it, I was so fearful of a miscarriage or something going wrong. I was still in disbelief when we got to 20 weeks, and I hadn't even hit my third trimester when I went into labour so we hadn't bought anything!
"We'd painted the nursery and revamped furniture but we hadn't bought cots or thrown baby showers or anything. The few bits of clothes that I did buy made me think that I better keep the tags on just in case - you just don't want to let yourself believe."
Jade took herself to get checked at Queens Medical Hospital in Nottingham on October 26 after leaking fluid at home for several days at 22 weeks pregnant. An internal examination revealed that Jade was experiencing a premature rupture of membranes, whereby the foetal membranes rupture before the onset of labour.
With Jade only being 22 weeks pregnant, her babies were not considered to be viable and the poor mum believed she would lose her precious twins. She said: "The doctor kept saying it was a miscarriage but I said it couldn't be because I could feel the babies moving. "I knew they were ok but was being told they wouldn't survive at this gestation."
Jade continued: "It was only because the babies were born with signs of life that they chose to intervene medically. They were alive, moving around, and they cried. Their little cries sounded like a tiny kitten.
"I remember saying that I couldn't hear Harley cry and one of the nurses said I wouldn't because she was far too early but then I heard this little cry. Harry did the same when he was born an hour later, still in his sac. In Japan, it is seen as being lucky if you have a baby born in their sac, so I held onto that luck!"
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