In a country where approximately one in every 80 births is twins, and about 25% of them are monozygotic twins, the birth of twins is already a noteworthy event. However, the story of Nicola and Todd stood out even more.
On February 15 of last year, at Rotherham General Hospital, in South Yorkshire, England, Quinn and Harper Bailey, two twins who defy expectations, came into the world. Quinn came into the world with Down syndrome, while her sister Harper did not. This situation, a phenomenon that only occurs in one in a million cases, resonated in the medical community and beyond.
The doctor who received the twins at their birth apologized to the parents, but the Baileys dismissed any concerns. From the beginning, they fell in love with both girls and wouldn’t trade that experience for the world. Nicola, in an interview with the English newspaper Metro, shared how the twins have a special bond with each other, lighting each other up when they lie next to each other.
The couple already had a son, Lucas, and he considers it an amazing experience to have twin sisters, although Harper presents some notable differences from her sister Quinn to her. Although twins share many similarities, there are certain distinctions between them. Harper, for example, will undergo heart surgery at the age of six due to a congenital heart defect, a common condition in children with Down syndrome.
Although Nicola and Todd stress that they don’t discriminate between their twins, this unexpected turn in their lives has made a difference. Often the most challenging thing is people’s looks or well-meaning comments about a child’s appearance, even when one of them has Down syndrome.
Therefore, the couple has decided to take advantage of this situation to educate and raise awareness about what Down syndrome really entails. They want to get the message across that having twins and one of them having Down syndrome is not the end of the world. In fact, they are proud to be “one in a million” and wouldn’t trade their experience for anything, even if they had known about Harper during her pregnancy.
