Twins' mother speaks of turmoil

A woman who is expecting Siamese twin girls who share one heart has told of her anguish at knowing that one of her daughters will die.

Mother Tina May is said to be "petrified" as the birth date draws near, according to The Sun newspaper.

Each time I feel them kicking the agony of what lies ahead really hits me

Tina May

The 23-year-old told the paper of her doubts since she and her fiancé Dennis Smith had decided to go ahead with the pregnancy.

The couple, from St Albans, Hertfordshire, have named their twins Courtney and Natasha.

She told The Sun: "I feel totally in turmoil - but what mother in my position wouldn't?".

Nagging doubts

Ms May said that for the first time she had doubts about whether they had made the right decision not to go ahead with a termination initially offered.

She discovered she was carrying conjoined twins following a routine scan in November.

As a Catholic she was against having an abortion on religious grounds.

Doctors at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in London believe that the dominant twin Natasha could survive because the shared heart is further inside her body than her sister's.

"Each time I feel them kicking the agony of what lies ahead really hits me but I know we had to do it for Natasha's sake," she told the paper on Wednesday.

Miss May is due to have a Caesarean section at the end of April before the twins are transferred to Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.

They will be cared for there until they are strong enough for an operation.

They also share a liver which will have to be divided but doctors believe this will regenerate.

The couple also have a 11-month-old son, Damien.

Rare occurrence

Conjoined twins occur in about one-in-100,000 pregnancies and only around 19 sets have been dealt with at British hospitals since 1984.

Siamese twins joined at the spine survived an operation to separate them in December.

Eman and Sanchia, born to Emma and David Mowatt, from Birmingham, were operated on a the city's Diana, Princess of Wales Children's Hospital.

Siamese twins Gracie and Rosie Attard made legal history a year earlier when the High Court ruled an operation to separate them should go ahead despite the opposition of their parents.

Michael and Rina Attard, Catholics from the Maltese island of Gozo who had brought the twins to Britain for medical care, opposed the operation because it was known Rosie would die.

Rosie died during the operation at St Mary's Hospital, Manchester, but doctors said Gracie could lead a normal life.