Miracle premature twins born BEFORE the legal abortion limit beat the odds to survive – and celebrate their first birthday
Little Cadence and Jaxson Moore were born at 23 weeks... and their chance of making it was low
THESE ‘miracle’ twins born within the UK’s legal abortion limit are set to celebrate their first birthdays, despite being deemed too young to survive.
Cadence Moore weighed just 1lb 1oz when she was born, less than a bag of flour – and her brother Jaxson 1lb 6oz.
The premature pair were delivered by Caesarean section on September 23 last year – at just 23 weeks and six days.
The twins were delivered within the UK’s 24-week legal abortion limit, and their very conception was a miracle.
Their parents, Jourdan and Matt Moore, had adopted the twins as embryos – from the estimated 650,000 fertilised eggs left over from parents who have had IVF in the States.
Premature babies
* The world’s earliest premature baby was born at 21 weeks and five days, weighing 1lb 6oz – five pounds more than Candace.
* James Elgin Gill was born in Ottowa, Canada, in May 1987. He survived, and is now living a healthy life.
* Amilia Taylor was born a day later, at 21 weeks and six days, weighing just 10oz.
* With paper thin skin, her entire body was just longer than a pen – but Amilia also survived.
* Meanwhile a German baby, who at 8oz believed to be the smallest infant ever to survive, is now nine months old.
* Emilia Grabarczyk was born at 26 weeks.
Jourdan, 32, from Portland, Oregan, said: "Families who are complete are faced with a choice: to pay a storage fee to keep the embryos frozen, have them discarded or donate to science or embryo adoption.
"We'd really had it in our hearts to adopt a child, to bring a child into our home, who wouldn't have a home without us."
Housewife Jourdan and construction worker Matt, 32, married in 2005 – and immediately wanted to start a family.
Sadly, Jourdan suffered from Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammatory condition of the intestines.
Her condition is so severe that Jourdan only responded to methotrexate, a drug used for cancer patients, autoimmune diseases, and to induce abortions.
Knowing Jourdan could not carry a baby to full-term, the couple set their hearts on adoption – but waited a decade without any luck.
The embryo scheme was a godsend for the couple, and their friend Hollie Mentesana volunteered to be a surrogate.
They adopted seven embryos from an anonymous donor family, who had already had a child from the same batch.
Hollie, a mum-of-two, received two embryos on April 28 last year – and on May 20 the couple heard they would soon be parents to non-biological twins.
What is the legal abortion limit, and why?
*The limit is currently set at 24 weeks (just under six months), the age at which the foetus becomes ‘viable’ for survival.
* The limit was lowered from 28 weeks to 24 in 1990, and pro-life groups argue it should be lowered to 20 weeks.
* But medical experts say although survival rates have increased hugely for babies born at 24 or 25 weeks, those born at 23 weeks are still not likely to make it.
* Abortions can sometimes be carried out after 24 weeks, if there’s a grave risk to the mum’s life or severe foetal abnormality.
* Around 200,000 abortions are carried out in England and Wales every year.
* Less than two per cent of these were performed between 20 and 24 weeks, and just 136 after the 24-week limit.
However after 23 weeks of a healthy pregnancy, Hollie was taken into Portland’s St Vincent’s Hospital on September 18 with a suspected bladder infection.
There, she was told the shocking news that she was 10cm dilated – and the babies would be delivered by C-section, with little chance of survival.
Jourdan said: "The doctor looked at me and said the babies are coming right now and at 23 weeks they will not make it.
"I didn't want to believe it, as we'd come through so much to reach that stage.
"Still, we had no choice but to prepare ourselves for their deaths."
They were given the option to resuscitate and give life support, or opt for palliative care – with doctors advising them to choose the latter option.
"The survival rate for resuscitation was 21 per cent," Jourdan explained.
"The doctors wanted to let nature take its course, but we couldn't give up on our miracle children.
"Thankfully, we didn't and now we have two gorgeous one-year-olds. It's amazing."
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Five days after Hollie was admitted to hospital, Jaxson and Cadence were born.
Their organs were severely underdeveloped and they didn't even have nipples. Their eyes were fused shut and wouldn't open until two weeks later.
They were put in separate incubators in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), and remained there for 98 days.
The proud parents were able to hold Jaxson at five days and Cadence at eight days.
Neither of their hearts had properly closed but, with medication, they developed normally.
They also suffered from retinopathy of prematurity, an eye disease that occurs in premature babies.
Abnormal blood vessels grow in the retina, causing it to detach from the back of the eye, leading to blindness.
Both of their conditions cleared up but Jaxson was discovered to be short-sighted in August and needs glasses.
Jourdan remained by their side day and night, returning home just once in three months – for two hours.
She said: "As an adoptive mother, I never had a chance to feel the babies kick inside the womb.
"I did five hours of skin-to-skin contact every day with each baby, so I was able to bond with them at such a young age."
Finally on December 31, just two weeks before the twins' original due date on January 14, they left hospital.
Now the babies have regular physical and occupational therapy to help their development.
And Cadence, who was diagnosed with chronic lung disease in the NICU, remains on oxygen at night, due to underdeveloped lungs.
Despite remarkable progress, the babies remain small for their age, with Jaxson now weighing 16lbs and Cadence 17lbs.
Jourdan said: "It wasn't until two thirds of the way through our hospital stay that we were sure they would be fine.
"I was in the NICU every day and saw babies that didn't make it, despite being born bigger and stronger than mine.
"I'm so blessed and lucky that we had a good outcome, but that's not the case for everyone."