Mum gives birth to two sets of twins in less than one year despite undergoing tubal ligation

South Yorkshire, England: Donna Cordingley was stunned when she went into hospital for sterilisation tests to be told she was five months pregnant with her second set of twins.

As she lay in her hospital bed there was no doubt in Donna Cordingley’s mind that she was making the right decision.

With five children, including eight-month-old twins, she knew she needed to be sterilised.

But after the pre-operation tests, doctors told her it was out of the question... because Donna was already five months pregnant, and yet again with twins.

In an astonishing 50,000 to one chance, Donna and her husband David had conceived two sets of twins in less than a year.

And while having more children had been the one thing Donna hadn’t wanted, the mum of five had no option but to continue with the pregnancy and just six days before she would celebrate her eldest set of twins’s first birthday, 40-year-old Donna gave birth to her second set.

She says: “I don’t think there are words to describe how utterly stunned I was.

The first set of twins was a complete shock to the system and took some getting used to, but to go on and have a second set 11 months later, was absolutely life changing.”

The rare and unexpected surprise arrivals have brought Donna and her husband David’s brood up to seven kids now aged between two and 21.

"I’ve gone from being able to have a life of my own again as my older children were becoming more independent, to literally not having a single waking minute to myself.

'There are days when I don’t even have time to get dressed or eat a single thing as I'm running from one child to another trying to ensure they all have everything they need and aren’t getting up to mischief.

"My life literally isn't my own.

"We've been told that Ladbrokes would give odds of just 50,000 to one to do what we’ve done.

"It really is incredible."

The arrival of both sets of twins came as complete surprises to the Donna and David.

The couple, from Barnsley, South Yorkshire, already had three children, Thomas, now 21, William, 18, and 15-year-old Hannah, when Donna discovered she was pregnant again in December 2010.

Thinking she was suffering from gall stones, she had gone to see her GP.

"I'd been feeling very bloated and having tummy cramps.

"I'd suffered with gall stones in the past and thought they had come back.

"My doctor sent me for a scan later that day.|

But as Donna lay on the bed the sonographer announced: "Here’s baby number one, and here’s baby number two.

"They both look very healthy."

"I was absolutely speechless," says Donna.

"It had never once occurred to me that I could be pregnant.

"But the doctor explained I was 24 weeks."

Not only had Donna been taking the mini contraceptive pill, she still fitted comfortably into her size eight clothes and weighed no more than 8st.

"I went home and handed David the scan picture – like me he was in a state of shock.

"We hadn’t planned to have any more children."

David, who has a twin sister, says: "I thought our nappy changing days were long behind us.

"We were just beginning to get our lives back."

In June 2011, Donna had an emergency caesarean section at Barnsley District General Hospital, after a scan revealed one of the twins was breech and in distress.

It was discovered Olivia, who weighed 5lb 6oz, had half of tiny James’s placenta.

He weighed just 3lbs and was rushed straight off to the neo-natal unit to be monitored.

Fortunately both babies were fine and within two weeks, Donna was able to take them home.

"That's when the hard work started," says Donna.

"Because they were so little they needed feeding every three hours day and night, and you could guarantee just as one dropped off to sleep the other would wake up.

"If I got two hours sleep a night, I was lucky.

"But I wouldn’t have swapped them for the world.

"They were adorable and despite being a huge shock, I loved being a new mum again."

Still, Donna was adamant she must now be sterilised.

She says: "I’d asked the surgeon to do it straight after I’d given birth but he wouldn’t due to the scar tissue, so when Olivia and James were eight months old, I was booked in for the operation."

Then during a routine pre-op scan came the life-changing news another set of twins was on the way.

"If I wasn’t already laying down, I would have fallen over.

"She explained I was about five months pregnant already.

"I drove home in floods of tears.

"It was the last thing I wanted.

"As soon as I walked through the door, David asked me what was wrong.

"I just handed him the scan picture.

"It wasn’t that we didn’t love the children – we just knew how much hard work was ahead of us.

"David had been in a car crash years earlier and suffered from headaches and tiredness, so I always did the night time feeds.

"I couldn’t envisage how I was going to do four feeds through the night.

"But we had no choice and had to carry on."

In June 2012, Donna gave birth prematurely to Isabella, weighing 3lb 3oz, followed by George, who weighed 3lb 4oz.

"They were both absolutely beautiful," says Donna.

"But I still insisted the surgeon sterilised me as soon as I had them."

After a month in Barnsley District General Hospital’s neo-natal unit, Isabella and George were allowed home.

"It was just mayhem," says Donna.

"Some days, I didn’t even get a chance to get dressed, as I ran between each child, feeding, washing and changing them.

"The older twins were still feeding through the night, so I would tandem feed two of them at a time, but rarely got more than two hours sleep a night."

Two years on and Donna has finally got to grips with having two sets of twins.

"I have to run the whole day like a military operation.

"If I don’t the whole house would fall into chaos.

“We do a weekly £400 shop and I plan all the meals, so I know exactly what I’m cooking.

"We go through 14 loaves of bread a week, eight large bags of potatoes, three extra large blocks of cheese, 42 pints of milk and four large joints of meat.

"I do at least four loads of washing a day, using a full supersize boxes of detergent a week and two large bottles of fabric softener."

At their peak, the children were going through 210 nappies a week, meaning by the time they are all potty trained, they will have used an astronomical 22,000.

"The staff at our local supermarket know us all really well now and are very understanding when the kids start pulling tins off shelves or running around the aisles.

"They are supposed to start nursery at 9am, but we never get there before 10.30am.

"And we are the only patients at our dentist’s surgery who are allowed to be 15 minutes late.

"The older children are a god-send at bath time, we couldn’t do it without them."

But Donna, who unsurprisingly is now a full time mum, and David, who helps at his dad’s transport business, say they wouldn’t swap their babies for the world.

David says: "It is exhausting and testing, and you daren’t turn your back for a minute.

"If you do, one of them will be climbing on the furniture, or scribbling on the walls with their crayons, while another will be raiding the biscuit tin or spilling a cup of water all over carpet.

"But at the same time they are fantastic.

"When you see them all playing in the garden together or splashing in the bath, giggling at one another, you can’t help but smile."

It’s another year before Olivia and James start full time school, and two years until Isabella and George start.

Until then, the family have resigned themselves to the fact they will rarely get a minutes peace.

But still Donna wouldn’t change a thing.

"We may not have planned them and couldn’t have possibly predicted they would come along, but they are delightful.

"James loves having a cuddle, while Olivia likes to boss her siblings about.

"Isabella enjoys playing with her dollies and George is the funniest child I’ve ever come across.

"He’s always pulling silly faces and making us laugh.

"We are determined to enjoy every minute of them, even if it means sacrificing a good night’s sleep."