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Premature twin becomes one of the youngest to catch and recover from COVID

A premature baby born nine weeks early in Scotland has made a dramatic recovery from COVID-19 after being one of the youngest people on the planet to contract the disease.

Chloe Connolly, 25, mother of four, gave birth to twins Esmaè and Averly McGuinness in September last year. After a dramatic birth at home, her babies were born nine weeks early and, to make matters worse, Averly caught COVID-19 in hospital. 

Baby Averly was born nine weeks early and caught COVID a month later, making her one of the youngest people on earth to be diagnosed with and recover from COVID.

Chloe, from North Lanarkshire, Scotland, described how she suddenly started to experience serious pain and called an ambulance.

“I was feeling rubbish and overnight I started to get really bad pains, it all happened so fast. We were on the phone with paramedics for 28 minutes and by the time they arrived the twins were born”.

“I couldn’t help but think how I was about to have to plan a funeral for her soon”.

Everything happened so fast that she could not even make it downstairs and gave birth in the bedroom.

“Averly was born first and six minutes later so was Esmaè. I never even had a paracetamol”.

“It has been a complete rollercoaster for us, we didn’t think she would survive to start with. The doctors had told us we were looking at hour by hour, they couldn’t even say she had days left”.

“They transferred her to the Royal Children’s Hospital and had a neonatal surgeon in the ambulance in case anything went really wrong. We drove behind them and I couldn’t help but think how I was about to have to plan a funeral for her soon”.

A little over a month after the twins were born, Averly caught COVID and doctors told her worried parents that it was unlikely she would survive.

“I started to think about flowers and arrangements in my head, it was horrible. Thankfully I didn’t have to do that because after being put in a coma and on a ventilator she started to get better. We couldn’t believe it”.

After spending 14 days at Royal Children’s Hospital, Averly had improved and was able to return to the Wishaw neonatal unit. The twins were able to go home on 12 November and are now ten months old.

Right To Life UK spokesperson, Catherine Robinson said: “Baby Averly has defied the odds and fought COVID. These heartwarming stories of premature babies surviving COVID-19 reminds us of the value of life, regardless of age”.

Dear reader,

You may be surprised to learn that our 24-week abortion time limit is out of line with the majority of European Union countries, where the most common time limit for abortion on demand or on broad social grounds is 12 weeks gestation.

The latest guidance from the British Association of Perinatal Medicine enables doctors to intervene to save premature babies from 22 weeks. The latest research indicates that a significant number of babies born at 22 weeks gestation can survive outside the womb, and this number increases with proactive perinatal care.

This leaves a real contradiction in British law. In one room of a hospital, doctors could be working to save a baby born alive at 23 weeks whilst, in another room of that same hospital, a doctor could perform an abortion that would end the life of a baby at the same age.

The majority of the British population support reducing the time limit. Polling has shown that 70% of British women favour a reduction in the time limit from 24 weeks to 20 weeks or below.

Please click the button below to sign the petition to the Prime Minister, asking him to do everything in his power to reduce the abortion time limit.