On Thursday, April 12th, Sydney Swans player Gary Rohan and his wife Amie became parents for the first time.
They both knew, however, and had since the very beginning of Amie’s pregnancy, that the day she gave birth would be one defined by both joy and grief.
Late last year, Rohan announced they were expecting identical twin girls. He also shared that one suffered a fatal birth defect known as anencephaly, where parts of the scalp, brain and skull never develop.
He shared on Instagram: “Since our brain tells our heart to beat, our lungs to breath, our legs to move and so on, these babies live from a few moments to a few hours after birth.
“Babies born with anencephaly are not compatible with life.”
Rohan added: “… Since knowing, we’ve been constantly discussing what we should do, how we should tell people and if we should tell people at all.”
They came to the decision that both their baby girls were, “beautiful, precious human beings,” even if one was destined to have their life cut so short.
On Friday, Rohan shared a picture of himself and Amie, holding their twin girls, Bella born at 8:59am on Thursday morning, and Willow born just one minute later.
The 26-year-old wrote: “Amie, Bella and I soaked up every second we had with Willow, making as many lasting memories as we could all together…
“It was a day full of many mixed emotions… we are very proud parents of two beautiful little girls who we love so very much.
“Our little angel Willow, oh how much you taught us in your precious 5 hours here ‘A life so brief, a child so small, you had the power to touch us all.'”
Our thoughts are with Gary and Amie Rohan at this difficult time.