Whenever Tia Brown cuddles her baby twins, she is reminded to count her blessings. She never thought she would become a mum after being diagnosed with the menopause at the age of 29.
And although she spent almost £40,000 on fertility treatment and nearly died giving birth to little Mayliah and Kawhi, she wouldn’t have it any other way.
Tia, 34, said: “Being a mum is the best thing ever. It nearly cost me my life but it has been worth every second to have the twins with us now.”
Tia and her husband Lee, 37, started trying for a family after they got married in 2018. But it wasn’t until 18 months later that they realised something was wrong.
Skin therapist Tia recalled: “We both went for tests and Lee’s came back fine, but mine showed that my body was going through the menopause at just 29. It was devastating.
“My mum and grandma both had premature menopause but mum had been older than I was when it happened so I didn’t realise it was that.”
The couple were told that their best option was to have IVF treatment straight away but all attempts failed because of Tia’s condition. Devastated, the couple contacted a clinic in Greece for help in May 2021.
Tia said: “I’d had such an upsetting experience in the UK, I wanted a fresh start – and Greece is one of the leading countries in the world for fertility treatment.”
Medics fertilised donor eggs with Lee’s sperm then doctors implanted two embryos to give them a better chance of successful pregnancy.
Tia and Lee, a pharmacy technician, were thrilled when weeks later, scans revealed she was carrying twins.
But Tia’s battle to be a mother wasn’t over as she suffered a rare condition called placenta accreta –
where the placenta grows through the womb wall.
During a caesarean operation to deliver the babies in January 2022, Tia lost a staggering five pints of blood and developed acute kidney failure.
Tia, from Bristol, went on to need a hysterectomy in July but is so grateful to have little Mayliah and Kawhi.
“Being a mum to twins now is worth everything we had to go through to get them,” she said. “They are our double miracles.”
This story originally appeared on Express.co.uk
