Twin miracles--happy, healthy boys escape medical conveyor belt.

There is a double miracle involved in the fact that Warrick and Theo Davies celebrated their first birthday on June 24 this year; first, they are bursting with good health, and second, thanks to the devotion and determination of their parents, they are alive. But they should really not be here at all. Indeed if the medical establishment at Kingston Hospital, south-west of London, England, had had their way, the twins would have been long since aborted, the victims of two false positive results in pre-natal tests.

he twins' parents, Bethany and Peter Davies of Surbiton, Surrey, U.K., had had problems achieving pregnancy, including a previous miscarriage. At age 34 Mrs. Davies could expect to be subjected to a battery of pre-natal tests, theoretically imposed to ensure that she would give birth to a healthy infant. Having been told previously that there were two babies on the way, Mrs. Davies underwent an ultrasound procedure 13 weeks into the pregnancy. The couple later agreed that seeing the image of their sons for the first time on the hospital monitor, grainy and indistinct though it was, was the most wonderful moment of their lives.

The couple was not allowed to be happy for long. Along with the ultrasound, Mrs. Davies was administered a nuchal fold test. This measures the width of a layer of fluid between two folds at the back of the baby's head; in Down's syndrome babies the layer is generally thicker. The test, which is considered 80% accurate, came back positive for both children. The "search and destroy" conveyor belt at the Kingston Hospital then went into full operation. Mrs. Davies was told to report back the following morning for a chorionic vilius sampling test, an invasive procedure with a high risk of miscarriage, and assured that, if it also proved positive, a "termination" could be very quickly arranged. That she would have no problems with this was regarded as a given.

The Kingston doctors, however, had not reckoned with the Davies' firmness of purpose. Bethany refused to undergo the CVS procedure and asked for a second opinion. But no joy came from this. A second and yet a third opinion confirmed the nuchal result, with the finding that both babies would be Down children. Worse was to come. A further scan at 20 weeks' gestation seemed to show that one of the boys would be born with spina bifida. Throughout their trials, neither of the parents evinced rancour towards the medical staff who dealt with them, accepting that the doctors themselves were under great pressure. Mr. Davies, however, found it difficult to conceal his anger at the cavalier attitude of the woman doctor who did not even have the courtesy to communicate the news of the new handicap directly to his wife. When challenged on what the parents overheard her discussing with her assistant, the doctor said casually, "Oh, you've already opted to have handicapped children. Another disability won't make much difference." "It was as though," said the father, "Warwick was just some abstract blob on the screen!"

Depressed and disappointed though they were, the Davies insisted on carrying on with the pregnancy. They did not know how they would cope in practical terms with two Down's syndrome children; they knew only that they wanted life for their babies. When the twins were born on June 24, 2002, they were premature and weighed less than 5 lbs. each. Despite this they were in every other respect normal and in perfect health, now constituting both an armful and a handful for each parent (see picture!). Despite the work involved in raising twin babies, there are no regrets, only thankfulness, from Mrs. Davies, although she does feel that "I was robbed of a peaceful pregnancy.... There was this assumption that we would just go along with everything."

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(Based on a story in the Sunday Telegraph, June, 2003)