Mum celebrates birth of UK's 'most premature twins' who were born at only 22 weeks old

A mum from Derby has celebrated the arrival of the UK's "most premature twins", who were originally given zero per cent chance of survival.

Jade Crane, who is 39-years-old, has spent the last 13 weeks by her babies' sides in the newborn intensive care unit (NICU) at Queens Medical Hospital in Nottingham.

Her babies, Harley and Harry Crane, were born at 22 weeks and five days - only just before the abortion limit of 24 weeks.

But, the siblings who were conceived via IVF have amazed doctors and their family are even hoping to take them home on their original due date, February 24.

Mrs Crane said: "I'm so proud of my babies - they're little fighters.

"They're doing absolutely amazing. They're doing all the things that we were told they wouldn't do - they're crying, they're surviving."

She adds: "The doctors were saying the babies wouldn't survive at this gestation. I was still two weeks away from what the UK classes as viable and the babies were given a 0% chance of survival. 

"It was only because I was at a teaching hospital and that the babies were born with signs of life that they chose to intervene medically. 

"The doctors are amazed, they're really rooting for us now. There's not one surgeon in the hospital who hasn't heard about our twins."

Mrs Crane and her husband Steve Crane have been on a long fertility journey consisting of eight cycles of IVF and several implantations of frozen embryos.

They had been trying to fall pregnant naturally for three years and Mrs Crane had suffered an ectopic pregnancy before they decided to start IVF in 2010.

Mrs Crane has described the moment she found out she was pregnant with the twins.

She said: "I couldn't let myself believe it, I was so fearful of a miscarriage or something going wrong. I literally didn't do anything during the pregnancy as a result. 

"I was still in disbelief when we got to 20 weeks, and I hadn't even hit my third trimester when I went into labour so we hadn't bought anything! 

"We'd painted the nursery and revamped furniture but we hadn't bought cots or thrown baby showers or anything.

"The few bits of clothes that I did buy made me think that I better keep the tags on just in case - you just don't want to let yourself believe."

Mrs Crane had chosen to go to Queens Medical Hospital in Nottingham for her baby scans because they had a more extensive NICU than her local hospital in Derby.

Coincidentally, the facility is teaching hospital staff and doctors how to intervene with babies born 23 weeks and later in an effort to learn more about premature births.

At the time of going into labour on October 26 2021, Mrs Crane was still 30 hours away from the 23 week mark - and doctors chose to intervene after her babies showed signs of life when born.

As a result of their premature birth, the twins have quite a few health problems and have undergone treatment during their time in NICU.

However the family are still optimistic they will get the twins home soon, and they believe the twins will go down in medical history.