Mum's Shock At Twins With Different Dads
4 hours 51 mins ago
© Sky News 2009 A mother of twins has had a shock after doctors revealed that her 11-month-old boys do not have the same father.
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Mia Washington decided to get some expert advice when she and her partner noticed that twins Justin and Jordan had different facial features.
Paternity tests then revealed what had happened - two eggs had been fertilised by two different sperm and there was a 99.99% chance the twins had different dads.
Doctors at the DNA lab in Dallas, Texas had never seen such a result.
Mia later admitted she had had an affair and got pregnant by two different men at the same time.
She told TV channel Fox 4: "Out of all people in America and of all people in the world, it had to happen to me. I'm very shocked."
Clear Diagnostics president Genny Thibodeaux said: "It is very crazy. Most people don't believe it can happen, but it can."
Sky's health correspondent Thomas Moore explains: "A woman can release two eggs from her ovaries, and the eggs will remain viable for 24 hours after ovulation.
"Sperm can survive up to five days inside a woman's body, so a woman could sleep with different men several days apart, and get pregnant not once, but twice."
And while it sounds rare, recent research indicates that one in 12 non-identical twins are so-called bi-paternal, with a rise in fertility treatment and changing sexual behaviour being blamed.
Mia's partner James Harrison is father to one of the boys.
He told Fox 4 that he had forgiven his fiancee for having the affair and intended to raise both children as his own.
However, he admitted it had been tough discovering the truth.
"It's a day by day thing. It's going to take time to build the trust like we had," he said.
The couple plan to tell the twins they are half-brothers when they are old enough to understand.
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