TWIN babies Archie and Harley Garthwaite are among the most premature babies in the country after being born at only 23 weeks.

Hayley Kennedy, 20, from Grasmere Street, Hartlepool, worried her twins would die after doctors told her to fear the worst.

The twins weighed in at only 1lb 4oz and 1lb 6oz each and were born with bowel problems and holes in their hearts.

At only two weeks old, Archie had to undergo open heart surgery, with his brother following a fortnight later.

Medics also operated on them both to correct bowel problems, performed laser treatment to stimulate their underdeveloped eyes, and put them on ventilators and oxygen to help them to breathe.

But, despite the odds being stacked against them, the twins have clung to life.

Ms Kennedy said: “I am the proudest mum in the world and they’re our little miracles.

“We just can’t believe they are still here.”

Ms Kennedy, who became engaged to the twins’ father, Billy Garthwaite, also 20, at New Year after meeting him through Facebook, said her pregnancy was fine up until she reached 21 weeks, when her waters broke.

She spent the next two weeks in and out of the University Hospital of North Tees, in Stockton, with doctors doing their best to stop her going into labour.

But at 9.30pm on Wednesday, June 13, Ms Kennedy realised Archie was on his way. He came into the world only 15 minutes later and was placed straight onto a ventilator.

Two-and-a-half hours after that, at 12.27am on Thursday, June 14, she gave birth to Harley, who was given the same treatment at his brother.

Doctors then had to perform three-hour operations on their hearts at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, in Newcastle, where they also underwent bowel surgery.

Ms Kennedy said: “The doctors told us to be prepared to lose them because the chances of even one of them surviving the surgery was so small.”

Archie, who now weighs 5lb, has been allowed home with his mother and father, but still has to have a round-the-clock supply of oxygen, while 4lb 8oz Harley is still in North Tees hospital and should be discharged over the next few weeks.

Dr Chidambara Harikumar, a consultant neo-natologist at the hospital, said he had believed they would die because they were so tiny and underdeveloped.

He said 90 per cent of babies born at 23 weeks into a pregnancy would not survive.

“For both twins to make it and to make it without brain damage is very unique and very, very rare to say the least,” he said.