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75-day labour saves woman’s twins
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Shine On
A Polish woman endured what's being called "the longest labour ever" to ensure that her premature babies would survive. And they did.
Joanna Krzysztonek spent 75 days in labour lying nearly upside down in an effort to save her two unborn children after the third, born at 22 weeks, died.
"Remarkably, doctors at her neo-natal clinic in Wroclaw were able to stop her from having the other two by administering medication to ease the contractions. Joanna was also virtually confined to bed lying with her head at a lower level than her hips," the MailOnline reports.
"I sighed with relief that there was a chance to keep the pregnancy and to give the babies a chance to be born successfully," she told Reuters.
[See also: Should motherhood have an age limit?]
So for two-and-a-half months, Krzysztonek lay at a 35-degree angle to prevent the two surviving babies from making their entrance too early. Baby girl Iga and baby boy Ignacy were born at 32 weeks, on February 15th.
The long wait was considered "labour" because the first of the triplets had already been born.
"This procedure — I mean giving birth — has a beginning and an ending. If the first baby was born that means the birth had started," Mariusz Zimmer, head of the Wroclaw obstetrics and neo-natal clinic where the healthy babies were eventually born, said.
Last year, it was reported that Donna Kelly spent 10 weeks lying upside down to avoid a miscarriage. (Unlike Krzysztonek, the long wait was not considered labour.) The strategy proved successful: she gave birth to a healthy baby girl, Amelia.
Moms, for how long were you in labour?
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