This Mother's Day will be a special time for new Maryborough mum Amy Blomdale and the twins she once thought she had lost.
Ms Blomdale, 24, began haemorrhaging blood just 28 weeks into her pregnancy and was airlifted to Mater Mothers' Hospital in Brisbane after being assessed by emergency doctors at Hervey Bay Hospital.
As her frantic husband Brendan, 27, drove to Brisbane from Wide Bay, Mrs Blomdale feared the worst.
"As soon as I fell pregnant, I knew we were having twins. I just knew it," she said.
"At our first scan we were told it was twins and I was so happy, but my pregnancy wasn't easy.
"Eleven weeks ago I woke up and realised I'd been bleeding heavily throughout the night.
"We went to the emergency room at Maryborough and then Hervey Bay and then I was put on the helicopter.
"I thought I was going to give birth while we were in the air and I was 100 per cent sure that I had lost my two girls – that I would never hold them.
"I was bleeding so badly and I couldn't feel them moving at all."
Mater doctors swiftly confirmed that Mrs Blomdale had suffered a severe placental abruption.
After stabilising her condition, obstetricians performed an emergency caesarean and babies Mazikeen and Matilda were delivered on February 20 at just 28 weeks' gestation – almost three months before their due date.
"It was surreal seeing them after I woke up – they were both so tiny. But I was so happy that they were with me and safe," Mrs Blomdale said.
Mazikeen weighed just over a kilogram and Matilda a little under, but both girls thrived during their nine-week stay in Mater's Neonatal Critical Care Unit.
The twins were transferred back to Hervey Bay Hospital last month and Mrs Blomdale is hoping that her family will go home for the first time in the next few weeks.
Mazikeen and Matilda are among the expected 2000 sick and premature babies who will be admitted to Mater's Neonatal Critical Care Unit this year, receiving round-the-clock care from its multidisciplinary medical team.
