For many women, the prospect of having twins would come as a welcome surprise.
But one very honest mother has revealed how she regretted giving birth to her two boys, and not going through with a termination instead.
In 2008 Jeanne Measom, now 51, from Dublin, assumed her family was complete as she had four children and was happily married to husband Guy - so she was left shocked when she gave a positive pregnancy test.
Jeanne was already a mum to Alannah, then 10 and Finn, 7. And with Guy, who she had met four years earlier, they had a son Tighe, then 3 and Charlie 8 months.
Jeanne, a writer, whose twin boys Jude and Rowan are now eight years old, reveals that she was still breastfeeding – so the couple weren’t using contraception.
They had struggled to have son Charlie and she believed it was her final menopause baby. Her mother had been through the menopause at 41 and Jeanne said she assumed she wouldn’t be far off from going through The Change either.
So when she started experiencing nausea Jeanne said she half-heartedly took a test to put her mind at rest.
She said: ‘I stared and stared at the stick when it showed up positive. My husband was as shocked as I was. How on earth could this have happened? ‘I turned to Guy and demanded just how he thought we could cope with five children.’
Jeanne admits her first thought was a termination.
She said: ‘But first I had to see how far gone I was. A scan at the hospital showed I was six weeks pregnant. While it was early enough to terminate the pregnancy – I realised that I couldn’t go through with it.
‘Guy agreed. His rationale was simple – “what’s one more when you’ve already got four”?’
Jeanne said she struggled during the first and second trimester with morning sickness. But it was when she and Guy went for the 20-week scan that their world was about to change forever.
‘When the sonographer brought the doctor in who then announced, “I can see two babies!”
‘I was so shocked that I burst into tears. Guy started to laugh. I’d just got my head round having five children – but six?
‘The doctor said both the babies were healthy too. It was a relief to know but I was petrified at how I would cope. ‘As hard as I tried I just couldn’t imagine how I was going to get the older kids to school with a toddler and baby twins in tow.'
Jeanne confesses that she cried for weeks upon hearing the news.
She said: ‘Towards the end I could hardly move. At the time I was also waitressing and my job became a real struggle. At 38 weeks I had to be induced.
‘The thought of pushing out two babies filled me with panic. But once the first one came out, I only had to cough and the second one followed.' ‘I’d really been hoping for girls, but ended up with identical twin boys,’ she said.
‘It’s such a random, remote thing to have happened to us. Jude was 7lbs and Rowan 6lbs.
‘One night when they were 10 days old, I stood watching them both finally sleeping at the same time. ‘Instead of the warm fuzzy feeling of love and pride I’d felt with my other children regret burnt inside me.
‘I asked myself what had I done. Had I made the wrong choice in not terminating the pregnancy? I felt guilty for even thinking it.' ‘Rowan and Jude are eight now. I love them – of course I do. But there were days when they were younger that I honestly regretted having them.
I’m an honest mother and the truth that no parent of multiples likes to admit is this: having twins is unrelentingly hard work.’
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