Miracle Twins Have Different Fathers — Their Parents Wouldn't Change That

Jun 06, 2020

In most cases of in vitro fertilization, one sperm sample is implanted into an egg, but a new procedure has enabled two different fathers to be parents of twin babies. Simon and Graeme Berney-Edwards from the UK were amazed when doctors told them that they didn't have to choose one father among them because they both could be simultaneously.

When Simon and Graeme began looking for surrogacy options in their home country of England, they didn't find many promising options at first. The process of becoming the legal parents of a surrogate-born infant was long, and it was not certain to produce the desired results. When the couple explored options in Canada, they found a better solution.

When they found a mother of two children named Meg Stone, it changed their lives. Meg was impressed with the image of the male couple on a surrogacy website.

Since she had recently gone through a troubling breakup with her previous partner, she didn't want a third child of her own, but she felt like helping another couple bring a baby into the world. One caveat of enlisting the help of Meg was that the couple would not be able to have a child born in their home country of England.

The men decided that they would find an anonymous egg donor for Meg to carry as a surrogate. They traveled to a fertility clinic in Los Angeles to partake in the in vitro fertilization procedure. They went there believing that only one man could be the father, but the doctor informed them that a new procedure would enable both men to fertilize eggs with their genes, and the babies could be born at the same time, reports the BBC.

The procedure uses multiple eggs. Some of them would be fertilized with one man's sperm while others would be fertilized with the other man's. When they met Meg, they were nervous about how well they would get along with her, but they were relieved when she welcomed them with hugs and affection.

Meg was implanted with two eggs. One was fertilized by Simon and the other by Graeme. A week later, a scan confirmed that Meg was pregnant with twins.

"Then we saw the other heartbeat," Simon told The Daily Mail. "Graeme and I just hugged each other. We were just over the moon. We were both going to be dads–she was pregnant with both of our babies."

Their daughter Alexandra was the first to emerge during birth and their son Calder arrived a few minutes afterward.

Do you know anyone who might want to have children with this process? Let us know in the comments, and send a link to your friends on social media so that they can learn about this miraculous procedure.