The chimera - the twin inside me

Here is an article about the twin inside me  - a chimera

Lydia Fairchild was twenty one when she had her first baby. Despite being separated from the baby's father, Jamie Townsend, she and Jamie had a second baby a year later. Another year on and and she became pregnant for the third time after which she and Jamie split up again. With no steady work and unable to support herself and the children she applied for state benefit.

Her world was about to be turned upside down.

The State Prosecutor's Office required DNA tests from Jamie to prove that he was the father of the children and, as a matter of course, Lydia was also tested.
In December 2002 she received a phone call from the prosecutor's office asking her to come in for the results. This was unusual and it soon became apparent why. The results confirmed that Jamie was the father but they also revealed that Lydia was not the mother. A normal DNA test proving a mother-child link would show a 50% match between their DNA patterns. Yet Lydia's DNA showed no match at all.

And here she is to tell her extraordinary story: 







From another article: 

True chimæras, in which many tissues are affected, are thought to be very rare, and can form when non-identical twin embryos fuse shortly after fertilisation.

So there would be are more chimeras after IVF,  and so there are, it seems.


There is more and more to learn about prenatal twinning -  watch this space for more developments!