When their mum went into early labour with twins, Rohan Townsend and his eight-year-old brother saved the day, writes Warren Gibbs.
Tenderly touching his newborn brother’s tiny hand, 11-year-old Rohan Townsend can’t believe that only hours earlier he’d been delivering the tiny boy and willing him to take his first breath of life.
With the help of his brother, Christian, 8, Rohan dramatically became midwife for his new sibling – one of a “pigeon pair” of twins – when his mother, Amanda Sullivan, went into labour three months prematurely at home.
Showing maturity beyond their years, the boys covered Ashton in towels to keep him warm. Then they comforted their mum, who was writhing in agony with Ashton’s twin, who was in the breech position, as they waited for paramedics to arrive.
“I couldn’t be any more proud of the two of them,” says Amanda, 32, who delivered Ashton’s sister, Indiana, by emergency caesarean after being rushed to hospital.
“What they did was truly remarkable. I could have lost both my babies and my life. I’m the luckiest mum in the world.”
The tiny twins, each weighing about 800g at birth – less than a bag of sugar – will spend 12 weeks in intensive care at the Royal Brisbane Hospital.
“They’re both doing really well and are in the best care in the world,” says Amanda, up and about just days after her ordeal.
“It’s not something you would ever wish on your children … it was frightening.” In an exclusive interview with Woman’s Day, Amanda and her “superhero” boys open up for the first time about how their lives were suddenly turned upside down.
Amanda had just cooked pancakes for breakfast at her Sunshine Coast home on February 27 when she was struck by a wave of agonising abdominal pains.
“Poor Rohan wanted to call an ambulance straight away, but I told him they were false labour pains and not to worry. But within seconds, the pain was getting so bad, I collapsed on the couch. I didn’t think it had anything to do with the babies, because there were no contractions, then all of a sudden I got a pushing sensation.”
Read the full story in this week’s Woman’s Day, on sale March 29, 2010.
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