DIARY OF A BIRTH: Laura cried tears of joy at her 7 week scan. Then her obstetrician went silent.

When Laura and her husband transferred their last frozen embryo after successful IVF with their first child, they were hopeful for a sibling for their son Lucas. It was their one last shot at expanding their family.

What they weren't expecting was a high-risk pregnancy with identical twins. This is their story.

First, listen to Laura's birth story on Diary of a Birth. Post continues below.

The last chance embryo.

After successfully conceiving their first son Lucas through IVF, Laura and her husband had just one frozen embryo remaining when they decided to try for a second child. The stakes were high, as Laura was reluctant to undergo another full IVF cycle after experiencing complications with her first round.

"There was a lot of hope riding on that final one embryo," Laura told Diary of a Birth host Ksenija Lukich.

"It had been frozen for two years. I really didn't want to go through IVF again with the whole hormones and egg collection. I also got ovarian hyperstimulation and ended up in the emergency ward for a night with the first round."

From the implantation to the blood test, it's a waiting game. When Laura finally got the call from the clinic, she couldn't help but burst into tears.

"Tears of happiness and joy," she said. "I remember getting the phone call… exactly where we were, exactly the time, and exactly the feeling of hope and want and longing and this real, somewhat desperate feeling, that you just so want this baby … and relief, complete relief, just washed over me."

Laura with little Alex and Riley. Image: Supplied.

At seven weeks, Laura insisted on an early scan to confirm the pregnancy was viable. What happened in that ultrasound room would change their lives forever.

"Very quickly and very clearly we could hear and see a heartbeat, strong, healthy, viable, normal pregnancy," Laura recalled. "I was just crying tears of joy. And then the obstetrician very quickly moved the wand from one side of my uterus to the other, and up popped another embryo on the screen."

Her obstetrician, normally talkative, fell silent. Laura kept repeating, "There's two" while everyone in the room stared in shock. Finally, he confirmed: "Congratulations, you're having twins."

Laura alternated between tears and laughter, saying, "It was just a huge, huge shock."

Watch the trailer for Diary of a Birth. Post continues below.

A high-risk twin pregnancy.

Laura's twins weren't just any twins. They were monochorionic diamniotic (MCDA) identical twins, sharing a single placenta with two separate amniotic sacs — a relatively rare and higher-risk type of twin pregnancy occurring randomly when a single embryo splits.

One embryo splits to create a perfect copy — two babies genetically the same but with their own identities and personalities. 

"Our OB very clearly could see the type of twins that they were, and very quickly said, 'Look, this is a high-risk twin pregnancy,'" Laura said. 

The primary concern was twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome, where one twin receives more nutrients than the other through their shared placenta.

This meant fortnightly scans from 15 weeks to monitor the babies' growth. Adding to the challenges, Laura experienced severe nausea throughout most of her pregnancy while juggling a demanding job and caring for her two-year-old son.

"It was rough," she said. "I was nauseous, severely nauseous for months and every day.

"Think of the worst hangover you've ever had mixed with travel sickness and motion sickness. Looking after my toddler, who was in the terrible twos, was challenging. And then work, and then travel to Sydney. It was a lot."

Laura's identical twins all bundled up in hospital. Image: Supplied.

An unexpected early arrival.

Originally planning for a vaginal delivery, Laura's plans changed at 32 weeks when one twin, Riley, flipped to a breech position. A cesarean was scheduled for around 37 weeks, but the twins had other plans.

"Every week and every scan, I was just hoping that Riley had flipped again and flipped back to head down. But he hadn't, and he didn't. So then we had to think about, okay, well, Plan B cesarean," Laura recalled.

But that planned cesarean never happened, because the boys came early.

"Riley, cheeky bugger, he kicked and broke my waters," Laura laughed. "I remember lying on my bed with my husband and my son watching TV. Within literally two minutes of putting on that show, my waters broke, and water went everywhere."

"The contractions ramped up bloody hard and fast," she added.

Just three hours later, in an emergency cesarean, her twins were delivered at 34 weeks and 4 days. The timing was critical — when Laura reached the operating theatre, she was already several centimetres dilated with Riley's feet beginning to emerge.

Both babies weighed around two kilograms and required 19 days in special care. 

While it was challenging to leave her newborns at the hospital, Laura acknowledged the silver lining: "It meant that I could recover and heal from the cesarean, which was major surgery, and I could rest at home and be in my own bed and see our son."

Laura and her husband with the twins. Image: Born on a Wednesday.

Life with three under three.

Now with twins just over one-year-old and a toddler, Laura described family life as "wild chaos and crazy".

"It's nuts," she said. "It's beautiful … they play together. They hold each other's hands, they hug, they cuddle. They also rip each other's hair and pull shirts and whack each other, literally crawling over one another for a toy. 

"There's beauty and there's chaos — we get both worlds."

And yes, to answer the question everyone asks about identical twins — she still mixes them up occasionally, despite giving them colour-coded wardrobes to help family and friends tell them apart.

MORE DIARY OF A BIRTH STORIES:

• Francesca Hung unexpectedly went into intense labour at the family home. So her dad stepped in.

• 'I was 38 and single. This is my story of becoming a mum on my own.'

• Weeks after Simone Holtznagel gave birth, her relationship fell apart.

To catch up on all of the Diary of a Birth stories, visit here.

Feature image: Born on a Wednesday, Instagram/_bornonawednesday.