I was at a party when my waters broke... then I was told I'd have to say goodbye to one twin

Alex Grice listened to the sound of exhausted mothers sleep around her. It was early morning on the maternity ward and the hospital room was quiet. Wide awake, she glanced over at the empty cot beside her bed.

It was meant be the happiest day of her life. The then 19-year-old had given birth to twins just hours earlier – 15 weeks prematurely. But she couldn’t see her babies. They were downstairs in the neonatal unit fighting for their lives, wires attached to every part of their tiny bodies.

Moments later, the teenager received the phone call she was dreading. One of her twins, Ava, had suffered a serious brain haemorrhage. She wouldn’t survive the night and Alex needed to say her goodbyes.

“I can’t even explain it,” Alex, now 22, told the Manchester Evening News. “It’s just the worst pain in the world. She survived the night but they warned me she might not ever walk or talk. You can imagine the run of emotions I felt.

“The experience now is all a bit of a blur. We went down and were asked if we’d like the priest to come and bless her. Things took a turn for the better as quickly as we had to say goodbye.

“We sat by her incubator side and prayed for a miracle that she’d pull through. We were told from then on it was touch and go and to be thankful for every minute.

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“I was lay there with no babies in this empty bed and a quiet room. It was meant to be a moment when you’re lying there with your children ready to go home. It was so awful; how could it get any worse? Even talking about it takes me back.”

Miraculously, baby Ava survived her ordeal – but it wasn’t all plain sailing for the tot and her brother Archie. In total, the twins remained on the