05.54 pm, Monday November 23 2009

Mum carries twins with two heads, one body

12:00 AEST Tue Jan 13 2009
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An expectant mother has ignored doctor's advice and decided to attempt to give birth to conjoined twins with two heads but just one body.

Lisa Chamberlain, 25, could make medical history if she delivers dicephalus twin daughters Layla and Kelsey.

They would be the first babies with the condition ever born in Britain.

Lisa and her fiance Mike Pedace ignored advice to have an abortion, despite the twins having only a 20 percent chance of survival at birth.

"Some people might look at me and say, 'You're going to give birth to a freak', but I don’t care because I feel blessed," The Sun reported Ms Chamberlain as saying.

"To me, my twins are a gift from God and we’re determined to give them their chance of life."

The Portsmouth couple had endured years of failed attempts to fall pregnant due to Lisa suffering from polycystic ovary syndrome.

But after giving up, they surprised doctors when a scan showed the two heads of their children sharing a single body.

American twins Abigail and Brittany Hensel have proven that dicephalus babies can lead a healthy and productive life.

Despite sharing all organs from the navel down, the girls have stunned medical experts by reaching their 18th birthday last year.

Each twin controls one side of the body — enabling the Hensels to play the piano, swim, ride a bike and even legally drive.

Approximately one set of twins in every 40,000 is born connected in some way, with only one per cent of surviving beyond their first year.

Dicephalus twins occur in just four percent of conjoined babies.

 

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