When Savannah Combs gave delivery to her twin daughters, she, like each new mother, knew they had been particular.
What she didn’t notice was how uncommon they had been.
Twins Mckenli and Kennadi Ackerman had been each born with Down syndrome. The probabilities of that are “exceedingly rare,” stated Dr. Pamela Trapane, medical director of Wolfson Children’s Hospital’s Duran Genetics Center in Jacksonville, Florida.
“For every 1,000 twin pregnancies, around two will have at least one baby with Down syndrome,” Trapane advised TODAY Parents. “However, the chance prior to a pregnancy that the pregnancy will be twins and that both twins will have Down syndrome is around one in 1 to 5 million.”
Combs had a sign a minimum of one of many women is likely to be born with Down syndrome throughout her being pregnant however didn’t verify with a diagnostic take a look at.
“Every [prenatal] appointment they were alive was a blessing to me,” the Jacksonville mother advised TODAY.
The twins had been born on May 12, 2021, two months previous to their due date. They stayed at Wolfson Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida for about six weeks. Next month, the hospital plans to open the Borowy Family Children’s Critical Care Tower with a three-floor neonatal intensive care unit.
Combs advised TODAY Parents that her husband, Justin Ackerman, was “very emotional” initially concerning the twins’ analysis. But the 23-year-old first-time mother was “just happy they were here.”
The household of 4 is flourishing at the moment. The 8-month-old twins are “hitting milestones like no other,” Combs stated. They attend bodily and occupational remedy twice every week and are nearly to start out crawling, their mother stated.
But as for the impression some individuals have that youngsters with Down syndrome are all the time glad? Don’t depend on it, Combs stated. While Kennadi is certainly a “ray of sunshine,” Mckenli is the alternative.
“She’s a total diva,” her mother stated.
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