Massachusetts Mom finds strength in her remaining three babies as one passes before even being able to leave the hospital. Ashley Ness gave birth to two sets of identical twins in rare birth in July. Though one of the twins passed before even leaving the hospital seven months later. Now Ness tells people she found strength in her children to keep her going.
“If I am to break down and not be able to do anything, my babies will suffer,” Ashley Ness tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue, where she shares photos documenting their new life at home for the first time. “I feel like I’m just that person that has to hold everything together.”
“I have to take care of myself so I can take care of them,” she says. “And they definitely are keeping me strong.”
During the months that daughter Chesley — who was born at 1 lb. 7 oz., the smallest of the four preemies — spent in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Mass General for Children in Boston, Ness “was that little girl’s voice,” Bettencourt (the children’s father) says.
“When I’m around, she’s tough,” he says of Ness. “But I feel for her the most. I don’t know what happens with her when doors are closed.”
Her unique pregnancy was a “1 in 10 million” event, according to Dr. Ahmet Baschat, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Fetal Therapy, who was not involved in Ness’s care. The phenomenon occurs when two eggs are fertilized at the same time, and then each fertilized egg divides again, resulting in two sets of identical twins.
Chesley and her twin sister Chatham, along with twin brothers Chance and Cheston, were delivered about 12 weeks early via Cesarean section on July 28. All but Chesley were discharged separately in October. Chesley faced hurdles the others did not, and as her mother held her at the hospital, she died Feb. 22, having never beaten the setback of lungs that failed to develop fully.
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