A young mom refused to choose between her daughters. The smaller one made sure she didn’t have to.
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At 21 weeks pregnant with twins, Leah McBride got news that no expectant mother wants to hear. Her daughters had twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome, a condition where blood flow between twins becomes dangerously imbalanced. One baby becomes the donor, passing nutrients to the other, while the other receives everything. The size difference between her girls had already reached 48 percent.
Doctors advised her to terminate the smaller twin, Poppy, to give her other daughter, Winnie, a better chance. They were worried Poppy would have a heart attack from giving away so many nutrients, and that Winnie might have a stroke.
Leah refused to choose.
Doctors were concerned about the smaller twin
She sought a second opinion at Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston, where doctors recommended surgery to correct the blood flow imbalance. It worked. But at 27 weeks, her water broke, and the situation became urgent again. Doctors used steroids to try to delay delivery, knowing that earlier was riskier. “We needed to buy as much time as possible because 28 weeks was still too early to deliver them safely,” Leah said.
At 31 weeks, Poppy’s heart rate began dropping and wouldn’t stabilize. Doctors had no choice but to deliver both girls. Poppy and Winnie were born on May 24, 2019.
The twist that surprised everyone
What happened next surprised everyone. Poppy, the smaller twin at 1lb 11oz and the one whose monitor had been sounding alarms, was born perfectly healthy. Nothing was wrong with her heart.
It was Winnie who was in trouble. She weighed 3lb 8oz but had underdeveloped lungs and was rushed to the intensive care unit. At 14 days old, she needed brain surgery to relieve a buildup of fluid. She came through it.
A lifesaver of a sibling
Leah said the doctors told her plainly: “I think your tiny twin saved her sister’s life.” Poppy’s heart rate had been fluctuating on the monitors, triggering the early delivery. But there was nothing wrong with Poppy. The medical team’s belief is that she was sending distress signals because Winnie wouldn’t have survived much longer in the womb.
“Poppy’s heart rate had been all over the place, so they had to deliver,” Leah told reporters, “but when she was born, she was completely fine.”
The girls, now 6, are thriving. Winnie was reading books from memory by age 3. Poppy is still smaller than her twin, but according to Leah, she still keeps a close eye on her sister. When Leah tried to move their beds apart, they weren’t having it.
“They are so close,” Leah said. “It’s sweet.”
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