Rare twin pregnancy requires careful medical care from diagnosis through delivery
Carrie Zirbes, mother of three, had seen her share of ultrasound images. She knew right away that something was different about the ultrasound to confirm her fourth pregnancy.
There was the usual fluttering of the heartbeat, but also an odd blob. As Carrie and her midwife looked closer at the baby, they got a wave.
“All of a sudden out of the background comes this wiggling hand,” Carrie said. “So we had a baby in the front and then a wiggling hand in the back."
The wiggling hand belonged to a second baby. Carrie was pregnant with a rare form of twins.
Maternal-assisted C-sections allow babies to go straight into parents’ arms
Six years ago when Lissa Dahlheimer delivered her first child by emergency cesarean section, the sight of her newborn daughter being whisked away from her left her feeling unsettled.
“It felt like everyone else saw and touched my baby before me,” she said.
With her second child two years later, Lissa planned a different experience. The lights were low. Music played softly in the operating room. The environment felt gentle.
When Lissa was pregnant with her third child and learned about the option for a maternal-assisted C-section, her decision came easily: Yes!
