When doctors told Jade Buckingham that she has two wombs, she feared she would never be able to fulfil her dream of becoming a mum. But despite the odds she fell pregnant with twins, and couldn't wait to hold her babies in her arms. After four miscarriages she was nervous throughout the pregnancy, especially after being told her twins were growing in separate wombs.
But Jade, 25, from Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, got the biggest shock of her life when her son and daughter were born early at just 34 weeks - with completely different skin tones.
Lanaé and Lavell, who are now four, were formed from separate eggs and grew with their own umbilical cords and sacs - making them fraternal twins.
"Lanaé was born feet first and Lavell was born head first, from that moment I knew that they were going to be polar opposites which they definitely are now," Jade explains.
It took a few months for the twins, who have the same father, to show their different complexions and Jade says people often don't believe they're related.
"When Lanaé's hair started to grow, I noticed that she had lovely dark curls and Lavell had blonde hair and a lighter skin tone. Sometimes when we're out and people ask about them, they don't believe that they're twins and sometimes I show them a picture of when they were born.''
Carer Jade discovered she had a vaginal septum - a partition that divides the vagina into two parts - back in February 2014 when she was just 17. After suffering four miscarriages, doctors had to perform a dilation and curettage (D&C) procedure which clears the uterine lining. During the procedure medics discovered she had the rare condition, which they believe she was born with.
Doctors at Nottingham University Hospital said the condition may have been a contributing factor to the miscarriages that Jade had experienced and told her that she might not be able to have children.
Jade said: "I was distraught because I'd always wanted to be a mum.
"My own mum, Sheena, who is 42, said she'd be my surrogate if I needed which was a lovely gesture but I wanted to experience pregnancy."
But just a year later Jade found out she was pregnant, welcoming her son Cairo, six, in February 2016, with her partner at the time.
And in the following September, in 2017, Jade found out she was expecting twins.
"I was of course over the moon because I was loving being a mum to Cairo," she explains.
''I'd always worried it might not happen for me and then to have him alive and well, it was everything I'd ever wanted.
''When I fell pregnant with the twins I was over the moon - but it was scary that they were both in different wombs.
"I had scans every two weeks to monitor the twins' development.
''It was at the first-trimester appointment at 12 weeks that I found out that the twins were growing in separate uteruses meaning that they had formed from different eggs.
"I was quite worried at the time because of my condition and the previous miscarriages I'd gone through.
"The doctors said that I should treat my pregnancy the same as when I carried my son which was a relief and I appreciated the regular scans."
At 22 weeks, Jade got the devastating news that one of the twins - her daughter Lanaé - had stopped growing.
Jade said: "The doctors said we had two choices: either I deliver both at 22 weeks but they might not survive or I carry on and my daughter might not survive.
"It was a horrible predicament to be in but I knew I had to keep on going.
''I decided to carry on with the pregnancy and hoped both would be OK, it was such an anxious time.''
At 34 weeks, on 29 April 2018, Jade was rushed into hospital for an emergency c-section because she'd gone into early labour.
After an hour in surgery, Lanaé was born at 16.44 pm weighing 3lbs 10oz and Lavell at 16.45 pm weighing 5lbs 2oz.
Single mum Jade said: "I was so relieved when they were both born and safe with me.
"As newborns, they looked similar but after a few months their different skin tone and features began to show through."
With the ''happy and healthy'' twins now four, Jade said: "Lanaé is like a little doll and she's so lady-like, whereas Lavell is so boisterous with bags of energy.
"They have such a love-hate brother-sister relationship but I wouldn't have them any other way."
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