BEARING jumpsuits that say “my twin did it” Goulburn’s newest set of double-trouble opened their bright eyes to the world on April 21.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Grace Stella is just two minutes older than her identical twin sister Willow Angel, but mother Crystal Lepre said they’re literally one and the same.
The girls are a genetic miracle - identical right down to the DNA. They fall in the category of monoamniotic-monochromic (mono-mono) twins, a medical mystery where one embryo splits just days after conception. In fact, the girls are the first set of mono-mono twins in Goulburn.
Mono-mono twins are normally referred to as the step before conjoined twins. They shared the same umbilical cord, same amniotic sac and same placenta. Ms Lepre’s mother Cheryl described them as “one person, shared between two”.
Odds of conceiving a set of twins are about one per cent, identical twins are rarer - monomono twins are even more unlikely.
There’s a one in 64,000 chance of the medical marvels being conceived, and only a 50 per cent chance they will then survive.
“At first it was hard to get a doctor to recongise what was actually happening because they had never experience it before,” Ms Lepre said.
“We had to travel for a second opinion in Canberra and that’s when we knew – from that first ultrasound.”
Even though the girls look exactly the same, Ms Lepre said she uses her “mother’s instinct” to tell them apart.
The girls weighed in at approximately 1890 grams and 43cms when they were born. It was the last thing Ms Lepre, a mother of four other children, ever imagined.
“It’s just one of those things you just don’t ever think could or would happen,” she said.
“But they’re absolutely perfect.”
Admitted to hospital and delivered by emergency c-section at just 34 weeks, doctors told Ms Lepre that the pregnancies were far too risky to continue with normal delivery.
The biggest risk for the girls was umbilical cord entanglement. “Within one week of being born the girls were already bottle feeding,” she said.
“Normally they’re on the tube for a few weeks when they’re that premature.”
Grace and Willow were born at 8:24pm and 8:26pm respectively.
The twins are sisters to Taylor (11), Chloe (10), Amber (9) and Jamain (5). Ms Lepre said the girls have visited their siblings’ school, South Goulburn Public, and were tiny celebrities with staff and students.
“They have been to every classroom and had a chance to show off a bit,” she said.
Proud grandparents Edward Stapleton and Cheryl Lepre welcome the arrival of their granddaughters
