After 57 days on bed rest for a high-risk pregnancy, Sarah Thistlethwaite was thrilled to give birth to healthy twin girls a few days before Mother’s Day in 2014.
Sarah and her husband Bill welcomed a rare set of twin babies at Akron General Medical Center in Ohio. Just seconds after the delivery, the hospital room went dead quiet and Sarah’s OBGYN, Melissa Mancuso, let out a gasp.
“Oh my gosh!” she said. “They’re holding hands!”
Sure enough, when the nurses held the babies up for Thistlethwaite to see, the little girls she named Jenna and Jillian were holding on to one another.
The ‘mono-mono’ twins, shared an amniotic sack, a phenomenon that happens in about one in 10,000 twin pregnancies and could even lead to the death of the babies.
It is the rarest type of twinning, and the one with the highest risk because the babies share the same amniotic cavity and placenta, said Mancuso, who has delivered several mono-mono twins in her 11-year career.
To add to their miracle, the twins held hands as soon as they met each other outside of the womb. “They were born 45 seconds apart,” said Amy Kilgore, a hospital spokesperson. “Once they made sure they were OK, they held them up so mom and dad could see. As soon as they were side by side, they held hands. It gave me chills.”
Nurse Amy McGuire, director of labor and delivery, showed the twisted and knotted umbilical cord to Sarah and her husband, Bill Thistlethwaite.
“It’s a complete miracle,”McGuire said.
“This is the best Mother’s Day present ever,” said Sarah.
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At the age of two, twins Jenna and Jillian Thistlethwaite are “like two peas in a pod,” despite their changing personalities.
“If one twin is crying, the other will try to find a way to comfort her, like going to find a pacifier or rubbing the other’s back or offering a hug,”Sarah said.“They always take care of each other.”
She believes her daughters are lucky to have each other, and that their bond will only strengthen as times goes on.
“Twins have this special bond and I can’t wait to watch them grow up and be best friends,” she said.
