Claire McWhinnie had just returned home from a trip to Dublin with her friends in September 2021 when she started to feel unwell. At first, she thought it might just be a hangover, but when the symptoms didn’t want to go away, she began to suspect that he might have caught the ᴄᴏʀᴏɴᴀᴠɪʀᴜs.
“I went to Dublin with the girls and then I went home and I wasn’t feeling well. I thought I had Cᴏᴠɪᴅ; it was my first time off after the closures,” she said.
However, when she took a test and found it wasn’t ᴄᴏʀᴏɴᴀᴠɪʀᴜs, she bought a pregnancy test just to be safe, even though she didn’t really think she might be pregnant. When the test did come back positive, she and her husband, Geoff Hennefer, 44, were sʜᴏᴄᴋᴇᴅ.
Claire had suffered three previous ᴍɪsᴄᴀʀʀɪᴀɢᴇs and knew her egg count was low. However, the biggest surprise was yet to come. When they went for an ultrasound, it turned out that they were expecting not one, but two babies.
“I went for the scan and they said there was not one but two heartbeats; I was completely sʜᴏᴄᴋᴇᴅ,” she said.
Claire ‘s pregnancy did not go as smoothly as she had hoped. The woman was very worried that she might catch the ᴄᴏʀᴏɴᴀᴠɪʀᴜs and thereby ᴇɴᴅᴀɴɢᴇʀ the babies. She admitted that she really dreaded the thought of getting sick while expecting the twins.
Weeks before giving birth, Claire was admitted to the Royal Bolton Hospital because a suspicious ʙʟᴏᴏᴅ ᴄʟᴏᴛ was found and her ʙʟᴏᴏᴅ pressure was also having problems. Two weeks after that, she caught Cᴏᴠɪᴅ. Since she had already been in the hospital for weeks, weakened by the ᴄᴏʀᴏɴᴀᴠɪʀᴜs, and her due date was fast approaching, she was advised to stay in the hospital until the twins were born.
The twins, Louis William Hennefer and Florence Rose Hennefer, were finally born safely on May 11, 2022, and Claire was already feeling well. The babies were born by ᴄᴀᴇsᴀʀᴇᴀɴ sᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴ, but this was uncertain until the last minute due to the mother’s health.
The couple was excited to be able to finally be together with their children after the trials of pregnancy and experience what it feels like to be parents.
“It’s like all the Christmases of my life have come at once – I don’t know what it’s like when your man is bored,” said the new mother.