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.
But when Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire resident Mrs. Gardiner gave delivery, the size of her sons “created amazement all around” the operation 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.
‘When they told me their weights I couldn’t believe it. My babies had weighed over 16Ib’s between them.’
Gardiner was relieved to hear that both of her sons were doing well because early in her pregnancy, doctors had warned her that one of her twins might not live due to his small size.
Mrs. Gardiner, who shares a home with her husband Simon, an insurance fraud investigator, age 32, was overjoyed to learn she was expecting.
But a few weeks later, her doctor informed her that they believed she might be experiencing an ectopic pregnancy, a potentially fatal condition in which the growing fetus becomes caught in the fallopian tube.
The physicians informed her that she was expecting twins at that time, but because one was so little, they cautioned that it might not survive the pregnancy.
She said: ‘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.
‘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: “The twins’ healthy growth made us happy, but my bulge became so large that I was unable to stand or move around normally. Due to how heavy my bump was, I had to spend the last few weeks using crutches.”
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.”
“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.”
“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.”
Beth Ryder gave birth to the largest mixed-sex twins in the UK in 2007; they weighed a total of 18 lbs 2 oz.
The 16lb 13oz twin boys born to a mother in Scotland in 2015 were the biggest twins ever recorded.
The 27lb 12oz combined weight of the largest newborn twins ever recorded. In February 1924, Mary Ann Ward Haskin gave birth to them in Arkansas.
