TRUE-LIFE
Life& limb
I worried how I’d cope with twins but didn’t know what was in store
Khedidja Teape, 29, south-west London
Making a beeline for the freezer, I popped an ice cube into my mouth. ‘Aahhh,’
I sighed, crunching down.
It was January 2023 and six months pregnant, all I craved was ice.
‘Enjoying that?’ my partner Shawn, then 31, laughed.
‘At least it’s not cakes!’ I said, rubbing my huge belly.
We were already parents to Zackai, then 9, and Zanaya-Li, 3.
I loved being a mum, but we hadn’t planned for more.
This pregnancy had been a big surprise, in more ways than one…
Because at our first scan in September 2022, there’d been not one heartbeat, but two. It was twins!
And our most recent scan revealed one boy, one girl. Perfect.
Carrying twins and looking after Zackai and Zanaya-Li was exhausting. But every scan showed our twins growing well.
At home, we prepped.
Two car seats, high chairs, a double buggy... It was daunting, the thought of two babies at once, but exciting too.
Then, in April 2023, after a slow labour, our boy 10 Zakari arrived first, weighing 5lb 2oz.
His sister Zalaysia, at 5lb 5oz, followed 45 minutes on.
‘I did it,’ I told Shawn, holding them in my arms.
I couldn’t wait to introduce them to their siblings as we were discharged the next day.
Only, back home, as I was breastfeeding, I doubled over with stomach pains.
Post-pregnancy twinges? When the midwife popped in the next morning for our check-up, I mentioned it.
‘It’s probably your uterus contracting,’ she said, suggesting paracetamol and ibuprofen.
But the pains didn’t go away and the painkillers didn’t touch the sides.
Every day, when another midwife visited, I’d get the same advice to pop pills. I got worse.
Three days post-labour I was throwing up green and yellow vomit.
I had diarrhoea, body aches, no appetite, was shivering constantly.
Shawn took care of the twins during the nights as I was too unwell.
Five days after giving birth, I lay in bed feeling like I was going to die.
I’d had two kids before and it was nothing like this.
I need to call an ambulance, I thought.
‘I’ve recently given birth. Something’s wrong,’ I told the operator.
Twenty minutes later, paramedics arrived and blue-lighted me to hospital.
‘I’ll be there as soon as I can,’ Shawn said, staying behind with the kids. At hospital, I was vomiting everywhere.
With my heart rate dangerously high and blood pressure dropping, I was rushed to intensive care.
Thinking I might have an abscess inside my womb, docs whisked me to
