This is a legacy edition story. True stories of past pregnancies in yester days (or years), as published in Pregnant Magazine.

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It’s identical twins for Joy!

Celebration time with identical twins for Metro TV’s ‘Grapevine’ presenter and her husband Moses Wanjala

Joy left home for an appointment with her doctor. ‘I was to be admitted that night to prepare me for a caeserian section  planned for the following day. Feelings: vulnerable and a bit emotional — though I couldn’t tell why; I was scared and I told myself, ‘this is it!’

Joy’s pregnancy was quite eventful. She was very busy — an engagement, a bridal shower, and a great wedding to crown their four-year courtship. She got first-hand experience with honeymooning while pregnant, having gotten married a few months after conceiving. Just a few weeks earlier she had been told she was Rhesus negative, a term that did not make sense to her at that time.

“I remember one day during my early pregnancy I was watching television and a programme, ‘keeping fit while pregnant’, was showing. I said a silent prayer. ‘God. I don’t want to become fat. Please help me maintain my weight. Help me to be able to work it.’ As a TV presenter my big size worried me. I had not seen any other entertainment presenters looking so pregnant! My was thinking was either I was eating too much or doing something wrong.

I was not in the mood for such jokes!

On 12 June we headed to the hospital for an ultrasound scan. It was the twelfth day of the sixth month of the year and my husband joked about the date. He said, ‘Divide 12 by 6 and tell me what you get.’ I was not in the mood for such jokes! The ultrasound revealed two placentas and two separate bags of amniotic fluid. Moses did not stop joking. ‘We will not try for more babies: we might end up with four!'”

Joy’s mum, a VCT counsellor, had a premonition about her pregnancy. “She had dreamt that a lady my age had come to see her and was crying, asking for cotton wool or something like that. As the dream progressed my mum turned into a midwife. The next thing she realised was that this woman was actually giving birth. Mum assisted her and she gave birth to a baby that was the size of Mum’s palm. When she woke up the first person thought about was me! She revealed to me this dream and that she had told God. ‘I pray that if Joy gets married and gets a baby it will not be that small.'”

One of the babies was in breech position

“When I learned I was expecting twins I was both shocked and excited. I had erroneously indicated on my maternity card that our family did not have a history of twins, forgetting that my grandmother was the result of a twin pregnancy. I am the first one in our family generation to get twins, as my parents and their sisters and brothers did not have any. Am feeling very blessed having two babies at one go.”

Moses Wanjala. Joy’s husband, on the other hand is full of admiration. “She was carrying two lives and I feel a lot of respect for her.” he says.

While Joy’s body ballooned to proportions she had never Imagined and the babies were approaching full term, the doctor determined that one of the babies was in breech position. “There was no more space for the baby to turn! I automatically knew I was going for a Caesarean section.” she says.

Moses was upbeat about his impending fatherhood. However, he did not understand what the doctor meant by Rhesus negative, or what is known as Rh factor. “First of all, my biology disappeared a long time ago.” he explains to Pregnant Magazine. “I asked the doctor what it meant. She told me something to the effect that if the blood of the first baby mixes with Joy’s blood It would create some antibodies which could poison the foetus. I was very scared, but was relieved when the doctor fold me it is possible to stop the poisonous effect through an Injection.”

She was heading to theatre.

Despite knowing she was due for a C-section, Joy got apprehensive, now that she was heading to theatre. She recalls. “I was supposed be in theatre by 8 a.m. that morning of 29th December 2006. But my hubby, Moses, had not arrived yet. While waiting for him I wanted to cry. I wondered what was keeping him. He had accompanied me to the hospital at around 5 p.m. the previous day and stayed with me until around 7.30 p.m. That night was very long for me because I was in the labour ward with another lady, who was in so much pain, that I felt guilty sleeping there the whole night just waiting for the morning to get my babies without labouring. Interestingly, after thinking about this for a while I started feeling backache and pains that felt like contractions. I think I was having psychological labour!”

“At 6.30 p.m. a meal was served. Tea came at 9 p.m and at around midnight I was instructed not to eat anything. I was given an injection which I was told was necessity to prepare the babies’ lungs for breathing.”

“While waiting to go to theatre, the nurse fixed a catheter, a flexible tube for passing urine when in theatre. I didn’t like this at all! They gave me an injection which I didn’t know what it was for and shaved where the doctor would operate on. I knew about this beforehand and had already shaved myself, but the nurse made a cleaner job of it.”

I blacked out

“The anaesthetist explained the procedure; and that just before I blacked out he would let me know what was going on. He said he would wake me up five minutes after the operation so I would be awake when leaving theatre. Then I met the paediatrician who was going to receive my babies, and the gynaecologist who was going to perform the operation. Last, I met the administrator”

“What I remember seeing in theatre was that big light hanging over the operation bed. I looked at it and said to myself. ‘I only see this in movies but now it’s happening to me…’ Lying down was a bit uncomfortable and I kept thinking to myself, if only I could get a pillow!”

“The doctors were getting ready and talking in low tones. Then the anaesthetist came over to me. I was dead scared but could do nothing at this stage as l knew the process was now commencing. He injected me on my hand and immediately I got this cold feeling. I thought, ‘This cold feeling is the one which will make me black out.’ All the doctors were now around me. They began cleaning my stomach while still conversing, using iodine or something like that — I know because it was a brown solution. Green linen was placed on my stomach and only exposed the part they were going to cut. My mind raced in memory; I thought about ER and Chicago Hope and all those medical programs I watch. I remember telling God that I was in His hands.”

The second baby had swallowed some amniotic fluid

“I was to get a bikini cut and could feel the doctor working on my stomach. I had an urge to touch where he was operating on. The anesthetist told me to breathe in as he placed something over my nose. I breathed in the first time. The second time was harder and I thought, ‘this is how people die…?’”

“I can’t recall what happened after that but when I came to I heard someone calling my name. It was the anaesthetist. I woke up talking incoherently, which got me very worried and did not like the way I was behaving. I said. ‘My babies.’ I was told I had two beautiful identical boys!”

“A friend had earlier told me that I might get fraternal twins: I thought to myself, it could be a boy and a girl. Although I had read in a book that one can have identical twins even when they are not in the same amniotic bag or sharing a placenta, which was my case.”

“Later I was told one of the babies was born at 8.15 a.m. and the other one at 8.18 a.m. Unfortunately, the second baby had swallowed some amniotic fluid and was in distress. He had been placed on oxygen. My husband said, ‘There is a big thing over his nose for the oxygen and then he is crying and breathing very quickly.’ After twenty four hours, however, the baby was out of danger. I feel so joyous and blessed!”

My journey’s blue moments…

I had gone for supper at my mum’s place with a girlfriend. Dad dropped us at my house. I was not feeling very well; I had a dull spirit. Once I got home there was this strange smell that I could not stand. A few days earlier we had encountered a chameleon in the house. We had removed it, hence I wondered where the smell came from. That week I felt depressed. I did not want to eat. But I really wanted oranges. Any time my friend was on her way to my house I would tell her to come with some. She told me, ‘You must be pregnant.’ Of course I did not agree with her.

During the first three months of pregnancy I was a sick woman. I would come to town with a black shawl to cover my nose because I could not stand the smell of fries and chicken. I was basically a vegetarian. Boiled food was my preference since i  I didn’t want fatty meals, so I boiled all my food.

My stomach was already stretching from here to kingdom come

Moses would ask me. ‘How are you feeling today?’ and I would say, ‘Horrific.’ I did not like this question because sometimes I could not explain my feelings. The next day he would ask. ‘How about now?’ and I would reply. ‘Terrible!’ I had all-day sickness. Whenever I travelled in a matatu I thought I was going to throw up. I wanted to always sit near the window, just in case. After month four, however, I returned to my normal self, but then I started to feel pressure on my pelvic bones. By this time my stomach was already stretching from here to kingdom come. I felt uneasy: one would have thought I was nine months pregnant!

Then came the severe heartburns and sleeping was such a problem. I could not lie on the bed flat. I had to sleep with my back and head in an elevated position. As a result, in the morning, my shoulders would be aching.

My Moments of Joy

I really enjoyed the pampering. All of my husband’s attention was on me, even if I was simply stirring tea. I would call him wherever he was, whatever he was doing, and he would come home. If I had forgotten to send him for an item he would ask, ‘Can I go for it now?’ I love that!

Finally the kicks! When you have twins in your womb, the kicks are just the bomb. Of course sometimes they would become uncomfortable and I would wonder whether the babies were fighting. One would move like this and kick once and then the other would kick twice! I would wonder. ‘What are they fighting for?’ When the doctor told me they were facing opposite directions. Moses would joke that they are kicking so hard because they are smelling each other’s legs and saying, ‘remove your legs from my face!’

END: PG 05/23-26