By Tyler Wright
Cockatoo couple Ashley Woodrow and Lachlan Martin found out they were expecting their first child in September 2020.
Despite being the year the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world, it was the right time for the pair, who have been together for more than 10 years.
“We always said we would try to start our family once we had a home and we were comfortable, and we were very fortunate that I fell pregnant in that year,” Ashley said.
Ashley’s eight week scan revealed they would be welcoming not one, but two babies into the world.
“We were pretty shocked, and I think because it was our first, we must have not really known what we were in for,” she said.
“Even the scan tech was surprised that we were happy about it, so that was an incredible start to being parents.”
Receiving specialist care at Box Hill Hospital due to a high-risk twin pregnancy, everything was progressing normally until Ashley reached 25 weeks gestation.
It was discovered then that ‘twin B’ – Ollie – was experiencing high blood pressure.
“That day was traumatic…I was essentially given the worst possible outcome, which was I may have to deliver that day,” Ashley said.
She was taken to the Mercy Hospital for Women in Heidelberg, where an ultrasound specialist advised it would likely be a pre-30 week delivery.
“From that day forward, I was at the Mercy twice a week, getting both ultrasounds and ECGs with their heart rates done… that went up from twice a week for a few weeks, to every other day and then every day,” Ashley said.
At 31 weeks and six days, Ashley was given magnesium and underwent a C-section.
“I heard Russell cry for the first time, which was incredible,” she said.
Two minutes later, Ollie followed suit, coming out crying.
“At that point, we were concerned about Ollie…he was the reason why they were coming out so early,” she said.
It wasn’t until some hours after Ashley’s procedure that she visited her twins in the NICU where they were receiving the “highest level of care”.
“A few hours later, I was trying to get some sleep but failing, that’s when it really started to go pear shaped, and poor Russell went downhill all of a sudden,” she said.
“It wasn’t until after the fact, after they had done a lot of scans of his heart and tried to give him all these medicines, and he wasn’t necessarily responding.”
It was discovered Russell had an un-diagnosed case of Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS) – a condition in which twins share unequal amounts of the placenta’s blood supply, thereby growing at different rates.
He was stabilised after being intubated with multiple medications, put on high-frequency oxygen, given a diagnosis of a double pneumothorax and given chest drains, a blood transfusion and muscle relaxant.
“They were surprised that [Russell] was able to hold on for so long because he had thickening on one side of his heart from overworking in the womb,” Ashley said.
Without immediate specialist care, Ashley said the outcome for Russell and their family might have been different.
“We were so lucky that we live in an area that’s close enough and accessible enough to get to these hospitals, but there was even times during the rocky period we weren’t sure when they were going to come out that there wasn’t any beds available at the Mercy, so they were going to have to be flown to the Royal Children’s,” she said.
“I remember thinking ‘oh, my God, I don’t know how to say thank you. I want to say thank you. I need to do something to say thank you.”
As a way of supporting other families who have experienced premature births and sick babies, Ashley will run the 2023 Cairns Marathon on the weekend of 15 July with her sister Holly.
At time of print, the siblings had already raised thousands for Running for Premature Babies Foundation, which supports neonatal units in hospitals around the country.
“[My sister] recently moved over to the States just before Covid hit… and she was the one that I was talking to at 2am in the morning when the boys were in the NICU,” Ashley said.
“Because my sister is actually a scientist, which is helpful in these situations…she was the one who was on the other end of the line when everything was going down, doing her research on her side and advising all these things and questions to ask.”
Ashley said she and her sister completed a half marathon together in the past – to raise funds for the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre – for another personal story.
“We’ve tried to do training runs together, but the time difference is proving to be interesting,” she said.
“She’s been very instrumental in making me feel confident enough and excited to do this, so the fact that we’re going to see each other in Cairns, she’s going to see the boys again…it’ll be really nice.
“It’s like the end of a chapter of the stressful period of these boys being born and what they’ve gone through as well after birth.”
Ollie and Russell turned two in March, fortunately showing no adverse effects from their health complications.
“[Russell] is chatty all the time. Sometimes he doesn’t really speak English. It’s just baby babble, but he seems to think he knows what he’s talking about,” Ashley said.
“He’s a happy, healthy little two year old boy and he’s such a joy.
“Everyone always says ‘oh, they’re so happy and so funny’….they’re still at an age where I think, ‘God, it could have been so different.'”
To support Ashley and Holly on their 46 kilometre Cairns marathon run, visit cmf23.grassrootz.com/running-for-premature-babies/mission-twinpossible.
