WHEN Mckayla Kennard rang to tell her sister Adrianna some surprise news, she wasn’t expecting to be surprised herself.
Just hours after breaking the news to her younger sister that she was pregnant with her third baby, Adrianna rang her sister back.
McKayla and Adrianna Kennard were delighted to discover they were pregnant at the same time[/caption]
Mckayala helped her sister deliver her baby just eight hours after she had given birth[/caption]
The sisters now help to breast feed one another’s children[/caption]
And this time it was her breaking the news to Mckayla that she was pregnant too.
“I couldn’t believe it,” says Mckayla, who lives in Ohio, with partner Mark, 24 and their daughters Corah, four, and Kinsley, two.
“She was in shock, and so was I. I couldn’t believe we had both found out we were pregnant on the same day.”
The sisters had been incredibly close as they were growing up.
Mckayla, 24, says: “We always went camping together, with Dustin and Mark, and when we were younger, we spent hours in the garden jumping on our trampoline, or going off on our bikes.
“Then as we got older, we would sit in our bedroom and experiment with makeup on each other’s faces together.
“She was a great aunty to my daughters, and it felt amazing to be pregnant at the same time.
“She’d had no idea that she was pregnant – when I told her that morning, she was feeling unwell too, so she’d decided to do a pregnancy test just to check.
“When it was positive she couldn’t believe it. We were so excited to be pregnant together.”
The sisters were given due dates six days apart against all odds.
Mckayla explains: “My fiancé Mark, 24, and I had been trying for our third baby, but Adrianna and Dustin had been trying for a year to get pregnant, and it hadn’t happened.
“So I’d told her to stop trying, as it was getting her so frustrated and upset. But now that she had stopped trying, it had actually happened for her”
Mckayla, a home birth midwife, started planning her own delivery at home, and Adrianna, 21, who lives with partner Dustin, 29, decided to have her baby at hospital.
Mckayla said: “I have delivered more than 21 babies so far, all in home births, so I was confident about my own birth.
“Adrianna was more nervous and had decided to have her baby in hospital. After each scan we showed each other our scan photos.
Is it safe to breastfeed another woman’s baby?
‘It takes a village to raise a child’, as the saying goes, and nursing another woman’s child was once common practice.
But pediatrician Wendy Sue Swanson told Baby Center this age-old technique is best avoided in modern days.
“Any time your baby gets milk from another mom you are exposing him to the possibility of infection,” she explained.
HIV, herpes and hepatitis can all be passed through breast milk (although the risk with the latter is small), as well as yeast and bacterial infections and some common viruses.
“And if Adrianna was nervous that she hadn’t felt the baby moving, I’d take my doppler machine around to her house, and put it on her stomach, and reassure her by hearing the baby’s heartbeat beating strongly away.
“Our bumps grew each week, and we would compare sizes and laugh about our cravings, and the fact that we couldn’t see our feet any longer.
“I sailed through the pregnancy, and so did she, apart from her occasional anxiety pang when I had to rush around with the Doppler to reassure her.
The pair say they were clsoe before but their pregnancies brought them closer[/caption]
The mums can’t wait to raise Cash and Rylan together[/caption]
“She was due to give birth first, on the 21st June and then I was meant to be six days later on the 27th. For the last few nights we had facetimed each other whilst doing squats, and couldn’t stop laughing whilst we were doing it.”
When Mckayla was 35 weeks pregnant, in July last year, she found her waters had broken in the middle of the night.
She said: “Luckily I’d already set up the birthing pool in our lounge downstairs, on order to be ready if this baby came early.
“So I got myself in the birthing pool, and just an hour later, I pushed our baby son Cash into the world. It was only 5.16am.
“I called Adrianna with the news as soon as I could and told her baby Cash had arrived four weeks early.
“But she had some news herself – it looked like her baby was on the way too. She went to hospital and they told her to go home to wait for the contractions to get stronger.
“She came to my house and her pains were coming thicker and faster all of a sudden.
What are the recommendations around breastfeeding?
The NHS recommends breastfeeding your baby exclusively (feeding them breast milk only) for the first six months, but it’s completely up to you to decide when you want to bring it to an end – and there’s really no right or wrong way to do it.
The NHS says weaning often happens gradually as your baby begins to eat more solid foods.
They note that solid food shouldn’t replace breast milk, as there is evidence to suggest breast milk helps a baby’s digestive system when processing solid food for the first time.
“Once they are eating solids, your baby will still need to have breast milk or formula as their main drink up to at least their first birthday,” recommends the NHS.
“Cows’ milk isn’t suitable as a main drink for babies under one, although it can be added to foods, such as mashed potatoes.”
You can also combine breastfeeding with formula, too and the NHS says “phasing out” of breastfeeding is often the easiest way.
For example, dropping one feed in the day or at night time.
After around a week, you can begin to think about dropping another.
“If your baby is younger than one year, you’ll need to replace the dropped breastfeed with a formula feed from a bottle or (if they are over six months) a cup or beaker, instead,” they say.
You can breastfeed for as long as you want, and while the NHS recommends breastfeeding your baby exclusively for the first six months, you shouldn’t feel like you cannot continue for longer.
The World Health Organization says: “Exclusive breastfeeding is recommended up to 6 months of age, with continued breastfeeding along with appropriate complementary foods up to two years of age or beyond.”
“There was no time to get her back to the hospital, she was going to give birth here. But I was confident – I’d already delivered 21 babies before.
“One of the midwives came to the house and together we delivered Adrianna’s baby son Rylan. Our mum Sarah was with us too, and I actually caught Rylan in my arms, as he slithered out into the world.
“It was an amazing moment. Adrianna had just given birth in my house, just eight hours after I’d also given birth – and I’d birthed her baby. What an incredible experience.”
“We both couldn’t believe what had happened, as we sat together a few hours later on the sofa cuddling our babies together. What were the chances that they would both come four weeks early, just eight hours apart on the same day.
“Corah and Kingsley were both so excited to meet their new little brother and cousin at the same time – they couldn’t believe that they had both arrived on the same day.
“Adrianna and I ate tea together that evening, with our babies in cribs next to us. We couldn’t have done it any closer together if we had tried.”
While the sisters might have already been close, they admit that their synchronised births have brought them even closer.
As well as sharing their births, the sisters now share parenting duties, even opting to breastfeed one another’s children.
“We even breastfeed each other’s babies for each other too,” Mckayla says.
“The first time it happened I’d slipped out for some food and left Kash with Adrianna.
“When she told me she’d breastfed him because he was crying it made total sense and it didn’t bother me one bit.”
McKayala says that she now regularly relies on her sister to feed her baby while she’s out at work.
“Now we regularly feed each other’s babies several times a week,” she says.
When she told me she’d breastfed him because he was crying it made total sense and it didn’t bother me one bit
Mckayla Kennard
“Having Adrianna and her milk supply on hand means I can attend births any time, without worrying Kash will go hungry.”
The sisters say that they can’t wait for their children to grow up together.
“Adrianna and I were close already, but this has brought us even closer together,” Mckayla says.
“We go to our local baby groups together and she spends a night at my house every week with Rylan, and they both have a sleepover with me, Cash and the girls.
“It’s so lovely. And Cash and Rylan will be having joint birthday parties together as they grow up.
“When they are older we will tell them the story of their extraordinary birth, and how they were born just hours apart.”
The sisters can’t wait to share the story of their children’s extraordinary births with them[/caption]
