A young mother who refused to abort her conjoined twins revealed she was “hoping for a miracle” when she went ahead with a birth that doctors said was futile.
Brianna Pereyda has described a “spiritual battle” between “religion, science and numbers” over whether to listen to doctors, who said there was no chance any of the babies would survive.
The 20-year-old gave birth to Josiah and Isaiah at Banner UMC Tucson, Arizona, on October 9, despite warnings that childbirth could leave her dead, too.
They both died shortly after birth, unable to breathe due to undeveloped organs.
Pereyda’s struggle between her faith and the rights of unborn babies comes amid a national debate about abortion and how moms, doctors or politicians make life or death decisions.
Brianna Pereyda, 20, gave birth to Josiah and Isaiah in Arizona on October 9, against the advice of local doctors. She is seen here with the twins during her last moments, along with her husband Emiliano Hernández.
The deceased twins received an open-casket funeral and then burial on Thursday, eight days after their birth and tragically short lives.
“The doctors told me they weren’t going to survive,” Pereyda told The Mail.
‘My mentality was that the babies would survive and God would save them.
‘I kept saying, ‘No. God could give me a miracle.”
She added: “Even in the operating room, I was hoping to see my babies cry and open their eyes.”
Tragically, the doctors were right and both newborns died within 27 minutes.
“I saw them leave with so little life and I couldn’t open my eyes,” Pereyda continued.
“When they broke the umbilical cord, they were already declining.”
And he added: ‘When the twins were returned to me, he had already died. One’s heart was still beating. The other died immediately afterwards.
There was just enough time for them to be “blessed by a father,” he says.
She and her husband Emiliano Hernández shared heartbreaking photos of the couple with the twins and their open-casket funeral on Thursday.
Doctors had warned Pereyda, who already had two healthy children, not to continue with the pregnancy.
He was told that conjoined twins had spinal, body and organ abnormalities, and that they both had “zero chance of survival” because they would not be able to breathe on their own.
She described harsh exchanges with doctors who she said “didn’t approve” of her decision.
“When I said, ‘No, I want to continue,’ they just looked at me,” he says.
Brianna Pereyda and Emiliano Hernández dressed in black for the funeral of their short-lived twins.
Pereyda raised $7,165 through the crowdfunding site Gofundme.com to pay for the service and burial at Holy Hope Cemetery, Tucson.
They urged her to have an abortion at 34 weeks and receive an injection that would “stop both babies’ hearts.”
But she was determined and “really stubborn,” he says.
“In the end, they said, ‘Okay, we’ll treat you.'”
She added: “They told me that they would still help me, but that it would be better not to continue with the pregnancy because of the risk of bleeding, losing blood and dying.”
She says she was in a “spiritual battle, between my religion, science and numbers.”
The devout Catholic says she turned to the church.
“I visited a father for advice, and this priest (I felt a strange feeling in him) reminded me of my grandfather, who recently passed away, and I felt very comfortable with him,” she says.
“He told me it was still an abortion and that it was against God.”
In the end, Pereyda says he “decided to follow my faith and my religion.”
To some extent, the gamble paid off, as “there were no complications, just the babies.”
Abortion is a divisive issue across the United States right now, but even more so in Arizona.
The procedures became illegal after the recent reinstatement of a 160-year-old state law prohibiting them.
They both died shortly after birth, something doctors had warned him was a certainty.
Pereyda says it’s been a “really difficult time” for the young couple, who are “pretty exhausted” and “still trying to process this.”
“I think a part of us died that day,” Brianna Pereyda says of herself and her husband Emiliano Hernández.
Pictured: Banner UMC Tucson, where babies were born and then died from lack of oxygen.
However, the law passed by the Arizona Supreme Court in April states that abortions remain legal if a doctor deems the situation “a medical emergency.”
Under current rulings, abortion is legal until the fetus can survive outside the womb; hence the medical advice that Pereyda received.
Pereyda says Josiah and Isaiah had a “beautiful” funeral and open-casket burial at Holy Hope Cemetery in Tucson on Thursday.
He thanks the generous Gofundme.com users who donated $7,165 toward the event, surpassing the $5,000 he requested.
“It made me so happy to know that my babies receive so much love and touch so many hearts,” she says.
But, she adds, it’s been a “really difficult time” for a young couple who are “pretty exhausted” and “still trying to process this.”
“I think a part of us died that day,” he says.
“I feel especially empty because I carried them for so long.”
Still, Pereyda has no regrets.
“It was worth having the operation to give my children a chance to live,” she told The Mail.
‘I would do it again. As a mother, if I had to sacrifice my body to save my children.’
