KATIE and Joseph McCulloch will be spending Christmas at the UK’s largest neonatal intensive care unit after their first-born twins arrived 12 weeks ahead of schedule.

Munro and Alba were born weighing just over 2lbs each after a very speedy and unexpected delivery.

Katie, 28, gave birth, three hours after having her first pains at home as she was preparing to go to bed.

Doctors took steps to try to stop Katie’s premature delivery but the twins had other ideas and are now doing well under the expert care of specialists at the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow.

She said: “The doctors told me if I’d taken a painkiller and gone to bed, I’d have woken up pushing.”

The Evening Times was given exclusive access to the hospital's neonatal unit - which cares for Scotland’s most seriously ill babies - to mark World Prematurity Day.

The babies, who were not due until January 12, were recently been re-united after spending time in separate units.

They were born in Crosshouse hospital in Kilmarnock, on October 22, but Alba was transferred through to Glasgow earlier as her condition was more life-threatening, as the lighter of the two twins, at 2lb 2oz.

She has undergone a number of operations and will require more surgery.

Katie said: “The doctors don’t know why it happened. They tried to stop it.

“They are both still on a ventilator and being fed through a tube so won’t get out until the end of January.

“The care we have received has been fantastic. I have every faith in them.”

The unit is celebrating this week after its pharmacists were named team of the year at the Scottish Pharmacy Awards last week.

Staff have led a number of innovations which will benefit babies across Scotland including the development of a new approach to feeding vulnerable babies who can’t take food orally.

The unit receives all high risk babies, including those with cardiac defects or surgical defects, in Scotland as well as the full range of premature infants born in the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde area.

One in 10 children are born prematurely each year - approximately 15 million babies – with prematurity being the leading cause of death in children aged under five.

Peter Mulholland, team leader of the Neonatal Intensive Care Pharmacy Team, said: “We are part of the neonatal multidisciplinary team meaning we are involved in the daily care of a broad range of neonatal patients.

“As a result, this can include extreme premature babies such as 23 weeks gestation as well as babies with complex surgical and cardiac conditions in addition to many other conditions in between.

“For babies who have been on long term sedation, the team create and monitor weaning plans to ensure a safe transition for the next stage of their care.”