Doctors are astounded by the phenomenon, which many midwives had believed was a virtual impossibility
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Happy family: Claire and Gareth with little Alice and Gareth Junior
Supermum Claire Ormrod gave birth to a daughter and son in the space of just nine months while using contraception BOTH times.
Doctors are astounded by the phenomenon, which many midwives had believed was a virtual impossibility.
Claire, 26, had Alice by emergency caesarean 25 weeks into her pregnancy on December 6, 2011.
Her baby was the smallest born in Wales, weighing 1lb 3oz.
Doctors were certain Alice would not survive.
The outlook was so gloomy that her heartbroken family arranged her funeral, rushed through her baptism and were only 90 minutes away from switching off her life-support machine.
But she survived and just seven weeks later Claire was pregnant again.
And at 29 weeks on September 7, 2012, she gave birth to son Gareth, weighing exactly 2lb, also by emergency caesarean.
The births were so close together that Alice and Gareth will even be in the same class when they start primary school.
I was absolutely petrified when I found out I was pregnant again, said Claire, who runs a martial arts business with her partner Gareth Gee, 36.
My GP said being pregnant again would kill me and advised a termination. But I said no right away.
Tiny Alice spent her first year in the baby care unit at Glan Clwyd Hospital in her home town of Rhyl, North Wales.
Claire said that if Alice had been born one day earlier, in the 24th week, doctors would not even have tried to save her.
The mum-of-five added: No one could believe it when we told them I was pregnant once again.
They simply couldnt get their heads round the fact that the two babies would be so close together.
With every one of my five children I was on either the Pill or the coil. In fact I was on the waiting list to be sterilised when I fell pregnant with Gareth.
"The coil is supposed to be 99.99% effective, yet I was on it when I had three of my children.
Alice has been left brain-damaged after bleeding in her liver.
She also has necrotising enterocolitis, which affects the lining of the intestinal wall, and milk curd obstruction, which causes neo-natal bowel obstruction.
Claire added: Just an hour and a half before the medical teams at the hospital were about to turn off her life-support machine, she woke up and then started breathing on her own.
She is an absolute miracle baby, a real fighter. They told us there was no brain activity and then she woke up.
Gareth was born exactly on the cut-off day for the local Catholic primary school in the town, Ysgol Mair.
If his birth had been just one day later he would have had to wait until the following years intake but the school decides that by the first day of term, rather than the usual September 1.
Claires three older children Molly, seven, five-year-old Jack and Charlie, two were also all conceived in spite of her taking precautions.
Claire Ormrod: Mum gives birth to two babies just nine months apart and she was using contraception BOTH times - Mirror Online
Happy family: Claire and Gareth with little Alice and Gareth Junior
Supermum Claire Ormrod gave birth to a daughter and son in the space of just nine months while using contraception BOTH times.
Doctors are astounded by the phenomenon, which many midwives had believed was a virtual impossibility.
Claire, 26, had Alice by emergency caesarean 25 weeks into her pregnancy on December 6, 2011.
Her baby was the smallest born in Wales, weighing 1lb 3oz.
Doctors were certain Alice would not survive.
The outlook was so gloomy that her heartbroken family arranged her funeral, rushed through her baptism and were only 90 minutes away from switching off her life-support machine.
But she survived and just seven weeks later Claire was pregnant again.
And at 29 weeks on September 7, 2012, she gave birth to son Gareth, weighing exactly 2lb, also by emergency caesarean.
The births were so close together that Alice and Gareth will even be in the same class when they start primary school.
I was absolutely petrified when I found out I was pregnant again, said Claire, who runs a martial arts business with her partner Gareth Gee, 36.
My GP said being pregnant again would kill me and advised a termination. But I said no right away.
Tiny Alice spent her first year in the baby care unit at Glan Clwyd Hospital in her home town of Rhyl, North Wales.
Claire said that if Alice had been born one day earlier, in the 24th week, doctors would not even have tried to save her.
The mum-of-five added: No one could believe it when we told them I was pregnant once again.
They simply couldnt get their heads round the fact that the two babies would be so close together.
With every one of my five children I was on either the Pill or the coil. In fact I was on the waiting list to be sterilised when I fell pregnant with Gareth.
"The coil is supposed to be 99.99% effective, yet I was on it when I had three of my children.
Alice has been left brain-damaged after bleeding in her liver.
She also has necrotising enterocolitis, which affects the lining of the intestinal wall, and milk curd obstruction, which causes neo-natal bowel obstruction.
Claire added: Just an hour and a half before the medical teams at the hospital were about to turn off her life-support machine, she woke up and then started breathing on her own.
She is an absolute miracle baby, a real fighter. They told us there was no brain activity and then she woke up.
Gareth was born exactly on the cut-off day for the local Catholic primary school in the town, Ysgol Mair.
If his birth had been just one day later he would have had to wait until the following years intake but the school decides that by the first day of term, rather than the usual September 1.
Claires three older children Molly, seven, five-year-old Jack and Charlie, two were also all conceived in spite of her taking precautions.
Claire Ormrod: Mum gives birth to two babies just nine months apart and she was using contraception BOTH times - Mirror Online