Mother Undergoes Life-Threatening Pregnancy, Giving Birth To Twins

One in 10 babies born this year will be born prematurely, which can cause a host of medical problems.

One mother who was also born prematurely, Gabriella Gastelum, endured a life-threatening pregnancy to welcome two babies into the world.

Born at 25 weeks old and weighing just a pound, Gastelum already beat the odds.

"Since I was born so small, I had a Grade 3 brain bleed," Gastelum said.

Two shunts were connected at birth to a catheter that drained the fluid from her brain to around her abdomen. It was replaced six times.

She was told she could never have kids.

"There's no way," Gastelum recalled the doctors saying. "If you do, it's either you or the babies that are going to survive."

But for her, the desire to have a family was worth the risk.

"We ended up going through six cycles," Gabriella said.

Finally, she was expecting twins, but complications began.

"At 30 weeks, she was essentially comatose at that time, not responsive, not speaking," said Dr. Beaumont.

Fluid was building up in her brain again.

"So the pressure in her abdomen had gotten so high that it offset the pressure in her head and the shunt no longer worked," Dr. Beaumont said.

He had to install an external shunt to drain the fluid.

"We were able to insert a needle into the shunt valve and take off a large volume of cerebrospinal fluid that allowed her to really wake up almost instantaneously over the next 60 to 90 minutes," he said.

Then two weeks later, it was safe to deliver the babies by C-section.

Leah and Natalia came with a surprise.

"That second twin was born with the old shunt catheter in her hand," Dr. Beaumont said.

The old shunt was too risky to remove during pregnancy, so Leah removed it herself.

"I was like, 'Oh my god!' that was causing all that issue," Gastelum said.

One twin stayed in the NICU for 56 days and the other for 107 days.

Now, the family is all home, happy and ready to roll.