PHOTOS - Meet Pregnant Mother Who Later Gave Birth To Two Healthy Baby Girls Despite Ignoring Doctors' Advice To Abort One of The Twins For other's Survival

A pregnant mother told by doctors aborting one of her twin girls would save the other said the seemingly impossible decision was simple - she would keep both babies. Carmelle Hartgrove and her husband Steve, 36, were overjoyed to discover they were expecting twins.

But that joy quickly turned to despair when a 10-week scan revealed the twin girls were unlikely to both survive to full term. The 32-year-old was told her unborn babies were both monoamniotic and monochorionic. The conditions meant the babies shared the same amniotic sac and placenta - putting them at risk of dangerous complications.

Sharing the same amniotic sac and placenta means the twins' umbilical cords become tangled, restricting the flow of oxygen and nutrients essential for growth and survival.

Specialists warned the couple, if left untreated, their baby daughters had just a 30 per cent change of surviving.

They said aborting one of the babies could save the other. But the Hartgroves were adamant, without needing to discuss the matter - they would keep both babies. 

'I look at them both now and think about what miracles they really are,' Mrs Hartgrove said.

'In the end, it was not a difficult decision. A 30 per cent chance of survival was good enough for me.' 

Mr Hartgrove, a lorry driver, and his wife already had two children, Charlotte, 12, and nine-year-old Callum, when they started trying for a third baby.  Mrs Hartgrove, a human resources manager, discovered she was pregnant with the twins in November 2012, after a miscarriage six months earlier.

'At the 10-week scan when I was told there were two flickering heart beats, I couldn't believe it,' she recalled. 

'I started laughing with happiness. I was giggling so much that Steve had to ask me to stop as you couldn't see the scan because I was moving around too much.' 

But quickly, the mood changed. Medics revealed there was no dividing membrane between the two babies - indicating it would be a high-risk pregnancy.

Weeks later the couple were told their daughters were sharing the same amniotic sac and placenta. Monoamnitotic twins are identical twins that develop inside the same amniotic sac.

They share a placenta within their mother's uterus, but have two separate umbilical cords for nourishment.

Mrs Hartgrove was offered the chance to undergo a double termination, or selective reduction which would mean aborting one twin so the other could live.

'How could I choose between the two?' she said. 'I would always look at the twin which survived and think 'I killed someone to save you.

'Steve and I didn't even need to have that conversation - we were united on the decision without having to discuss it.'

She said: 'I couldn't bear the idea of having to tell people I had lost the baby, so I didn't tell people I was pregnant until 24 weeks.

'I went into hiding. I even worked from home. 'I was constantly worried they would get tangled up in the umbilical cord.'

All it would take to kill them was is if they stopped cuddling each other and pulled on the cord.

'There wasn't a day which went by where I didn't panic that they had died because I couldn't feel them moving.

'It was a very stressful pregnancy. I would not wish that kind of stressful experience upon anyone.'

Eventually at 32 weeks the twins, Charis Faith and Connie Grace, were born by C-section.

Both weighed a little over 4lbs and spent 20 days in special care and treatment. Look the pics of the twins below;

Source: dailymail