A mother-of-four has given birth to the heaviest set of twin brothers ever born in England – weighing in at a massive 16lb 2oz.
Faye Gardiner, 33, said doctors gasped when they first saw the size of her sons Joseph and Luke, who weighed 8lb 7oz and 7lb 11oz respectively.
An average twin newborn weighs just 5lb, and Gardiner and her doctors expected her twins to weigh the same.
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aye Gardiner, 33, said doctors gasped when they first saw the size of her sons Joseph and Luke, who weighed 8lb 7oz and 7lb 11oz respectively
But when Mrs Gardiner, of Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, gave birth, her sons’ size ’caused shock all around’ the operating room.
She said: ‘The doctors had expected the boys to weigh about five or six pounds each – so when they were delivered weighing much more than that it caused shock all round.
‘I was lying on the operating table and I heard the surgeons gasp as they delivered the boys. At that point I didn’t know what had happened. I was just praying that they were both healthy.
‘When they told me their weights I couldn’t believe it. My babies had weighed over 16Ib’s between them.’
Mrs Gardiner, who lives with 32-year-old husband Simon, an insurance fraud investigator, had been thrilled to discover that she was pregnant.
But weeks later, doctors told her they feared she was suffering from an ectopic pregnancy, a lifethreatening condition where the developing foetus gets stuck in the fallopian tube.
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When Mrs Gardiner, of Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, gave birth, her sons’ size ’caused shock all around’ the operation room. Pictured above, the twins shortly after birth
It was then that she learned she was pregnant with twins, but doctors warned that one might not survive the pregnancy because it was so small.
She said: ‘I had been getting a lot of pain, so doctors were worried that I had an ectopic pregnancy. When they scanned me, they told me that the developing foetus was alright, but there was also another tiny sac there too.
‘They told me it was possibly a twin pregnancy, but not to expect the other twin to survive as it was so small, and much tinier than the other one.
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Though Mrs Gardiner couldn’t believe her sons’ size, the weight did explain her enormous baby bump
‘Little did they know that they would both go on to survive and be so enormous when they were born. It was ironic that one of the twins started out as almost too tiny to survive.’
At her final growth scans, the doctors told her to expect the twins to weigh between five and six pounds each.
The twins were delivered by caesarian and exceeded everyone’s expectations.
Mrs Gardiner said: ‘Other members of the hospital staff came to see them because they were so big. No-one could quite believe their size.’
Though Mrs Gardiner couldn’t believe her sons’ size, the weight did explain her enormous baby bump.
She said: ‘We were pleased that the twins were growing well, but my bump grew so enormous that I couldn’t even stand or walk properly. I had to spend the last few weeks on crutches as my bump was so heavy.’
The twins were allowed home after just a few days in hospital and are already thriving. Luke has now even overtaken his brother in weight.
Mrs Gardiner said: ‘We had bought tiny newborn clothes to take to the hospital, so none of them fitted. We had to buy them bigger ones from the start.
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Gardiner said that five months on, the boys are now home with her, their father Simon (right_, and big brothers Callum (in white), ten, and Joshua (in navy blue), six
‘They both have healthy appetites so they are gaining weight fast. They already have different personalities. Joseph is a real mummy’s boy whereas Luke is the laid back one.’
Now at five months old, Luke weighs 16lb 8 oz and Joseph weighs 16lb 2oz.
Gardiner said that five months on, the boys are now home with her, their father Simon, and big brothers Callum, ten, and Joshua, six.
The older boys were also pretty heavy when Gardiner gave birth – Callum weighed 8lm 13oz and Joshua weighed 9lb 2oz.
She joked that she ‘must grow big babies’.
‘It’s funny when I take them to baby groups as they always dwarf the other babies of the same age,’ Gardiner said. ‘No one can quite believe how big they are.’
The UK’s largest mixed-sex twins were born in Lancashire in 2007 to Beth Ryder, at a combined weight of 18lb 2oz.
A woman gave birth to the heaviest twins in Scotland in 2015, with her sons weighing in at 16lb 13oz.
The world’s heaviest newborn twins wight a total of 27lb 12oz. They were born to Mary Ann Ward Haskin in Arkansas in February 1924.