They are too little to know it yet, but twins Emyr and Esai are living miracles, thanks to the quick thinking and care of doctors and nurses in Halifax.
Edonna Bean and her husband Ryan live in Bermuda. In June, the couple learned they would be having fraternal twins.
“I was just staring at the ultrasound screen in disbelief, you know,” says Edonna.
She breezed through her first trimester, but things started to spiral downwards in her second.
In October, when Edonna was just 18 weeks pregnant, one of the twin’s amniotic sacs ruptured. Edonna was rushed to hospital where she was told she would likely miscarry.
“But that Twin A, he had a different thing in mind,” she says.
Despite the setback, Edonna didn’t miscarry, and the twins appeared to be in good health.
She was released from hospital and told to rest at home but, three weeks later, her doctor said she could give birth at any time and would have to be airlifted to the IWK Health Centre in Halifax.
“If I stayed in Bermuda, the special care baby unit cannot accommodate two sets of twins,” she explains.
She was admitted to the IWK on Nov. 5 and two weeks later, after being in labour for three days, she gave birth to Twin A - Emyr, who weighed just one pound, 15 ounces.
Dr. Michiel Van den Hof, a maternal fetal medicine specialist, assisted Edonna every step of the way.
“We had a mother who was highly motivated. We have world-class medical teams. Our neonatal unit is world class,” he says.
Eight days after Emyr was born, Esai made his grand entrance, at two pounds, seven ounces.
The babies are doing well and Edonna says she is finally able to breathe a sigh of relief.
“When doctors in Bermuda said ‘no,’ God said ‘yes.’”
Her husband will fly to Halifax again next week to be with his new family.
Doctors aren’t sure when the family will be able to return to Bermuda, but for now, Edonna and her husband are grateful for their tiny miracles, and look forward to the day when they can share their story of how they came into the world.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Alyse Hand