OVERLAND PARK, KS (KCTV) -
Two precious little girls at Overland Park Regional Hospital are doing better after their birth was nothing short of a miracle.
Stella and Sophia are in the hospital's NICU but are making progress. The identical twins were born late last week and shared the same amniotic sac in a condition known as mono amniotic.
A pair of Ohio twins caught the nation's attention last week when their mother posted a picture of the newborn twins holding hands straight out of their mother's womb.
Megan Sousa saw the story while in the Overland Park hospital and thought of her own children who were just born with the same condition.
"It's like, what about us? I felt bad for my little babies, they're in there in the NICU too. They did a lot to survive. I felt like we needed to get our story out there as well," Sousa said.
The rare condition in which two babies survive in one sac and the same placenta only happens once in every 10,000 births, said Dr. Rhonda Wright, Sousa's OBGYN.
"If they get entangled with each other, they can block off blood supply and oxygenation to each other," Wright explained.
Sousa learned of the condition at eight weeks and checked into the hospital at 24 weeks to receive around-the-clock care. Altogether, she would spend nine weeks in the hospital before they were born.
"There was a very high chance they wouldn't survive, so we were extremely lucky in that respect," Sousa said.
When Wright pulled the babies out, their umbilical cords were intricately tangled, something she had never seen in 17 years of helping with births. The cords were tangled together like a volleyball net or shoe laces.
"She's a miracle. These little girls are miracles," Wright said.
The two girls aren't allowed to be with each other yet because their condition remains precarious and incubators are only meant to be used by one child. Only their parents can touch them in an effort to prevent them from being exposed to germs. They are expected to remain in the hospital until July.
"They're doing fantastic. They're growing every day. They're just getting bigger and eating more. I couldn't ask for a better outcome for these babies," a proud and relieved Sousa said.
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