A woman recently gave birth to twins for her own twin sister, who has a rare hereditary disease.
As Dearly reported, Jill Noe volunteered to be Whitney Bliesner’s surrogate after discovering that her sister’s neurofibromatosis type 2 wouldn’t allow her to give birth on her own.
According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, NF2 centers on the “presence of slow-growing tumors on the eighth cranial nerves.”
As a result of the disease, Bliesner has gone blind in her left eye, deaf in her right ear, and has lost partial hearing in her left ear.
Furthermore, Bliesner underwent a partial hysterectomy out of fear of worsening her condition and passing on the disease to her children, Today reports.
Bliesner said:
“When Jill said she wanted to carry a baby for me, I was in shock. I’m not a crier, but I was really emotional.”
Initially, Bliesner was worried she wouldn’t share a connection with the children because a donor’s egg was used with her husband’s sperm rather than her own. However, that fear melted away during the pregnancy.
The 35-year-old said:
“Going through the process with my twin and being able to touch her growing belly helped. During that final doctor’s appointment, it just came full force. I was like, ‘These are my babies.’”
That joy reached its peak on June 7 as she sat next to Noe in the delivery room at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Oregon. Her sister gave birth to her children via C-section.
As “Good Morning America” reports, Rhett, a boy, arrived at 8:06 a.m. weighing 7 pounds, 11 ounces. His sister, Rhenley, was born at 8:08 a.m. weighing 4 pounds, 13 ounces.
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