Jamie McDonald and Anna McNuff thank Gloucestershire Royal Hospital for saving baby's life

A couple known for their extreme adventures have thanked the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital's doctors and nurses for saving the life of one of their newborn twins who was starved of oxygen during the birth.

The well-known pair from Gloucestershire - Jamie McDonald and Anna McNuff - welcomed their twins Rocky and Jupiter into the world recently. But they explained how one of their twins ran into some trouble during the birth.

Taking to Facebook to share their experience, dad Jamie, also known as Adventureman, wrote down what happened during the birth.

"It happened, our twins arrived! Being honest, it wasn’t as we hoped.

"Just the heads up, I’m about to share some pretty sensitive stuff, if you’re pregnant, or had an experience to do with birth trauma, you might not want to read on.

"We decided this time, instead of a home birth, we’d go to hospital because of the extra risk factor complications twins can bring.

"11 days ago, at 9am, Anna’s waters broke. Watching Anna mooooooo with big contractions (and knowing she didn’t want to take any drugs), I was so proud of her.

"It was all going swimmingly well, just three hours later at 12:08pm, our baby boy was born - his name is Rocky McDonald. Hell yeah to that name!

"Even though Rocky was out, I never completely relaxed as I wanted the second twin to join us.

"While I was holding Rocky in the water, minutes later, Anna was pushing again and looked down below in the water and could see what I thought was our little girl’s head.

"But, Anna was out of contractions and needed to wait until the next push. A few minutes later, she came out, born in the sack.

"The midwife was blown away and said, ‘I’ve never seen this before, that’s really rare.’ A 1 in 80,000 chance.

"The midwife burst the sack, and Jupiter (our baby girl), was pale white and floppy. At some point, the placenta leaked blood and starved Jupiter of oxygen. That’s when everything took a turn.

"She didn’t come back to life on Anna’s chest, and the midwife whizzed her off and hit the alarm button.

"While Anna stayed with Rocky, I went with Jupiter, with seconds a team was around Jupiter giving her oxygen and keeping her alive. I cried my eyes out.

"When the doctor held up her leg, seeing it flop down and hit the table, it was my worst nightmare. I felt faint and hit the floor.

"The doctor came down to my level on the floor and I had to ask the question, ‘Have you seen a baby make a full recovery and live a normal life from this?’

"He said, ‘yes’, but from what I just witnessed, I wasn’t hopeful at all. I went off and into an emotional whirlwind. I cried. Then cried some more.

"A couple of hours later, I visited Jupiter in the incubator and rested my hands on her, I was desperate to give her skin on skin.

"As each worrying hour went by, the doctor updated us and every time it was surprisingly good news, ‘She’s breathing on her own now’.

"Then another hour passed, ‘we’ve checked her brain waves and it’s looking like normal activity.’ I genuinely couldn’t believe it.

"Days went by as me and Anna stayed and slept by the incubator. It was the hardest few days of my life. After 7 days, the doctor said we could go home.

"This experience was not how we thought it would turn out. As I’m writing, I’m welling up.

"We’re feeling incredibly grateful for all the nurses and doctors at the Neonatel unit at Gloucester Royal Hospital who supported us and who are literally saving babies lives, every day.

"And our hearts go out to the families that are still there with their little ones right now battling on. We’re now home (with our other little girl Storm) as a family unit.

"We’re still trying to process what the hell happened, but for now, we’d like to introduce you to the newest members of the family… Our twins… Rocky McDonald (5lb 6oz) and Jupiter McNuff (5lb 10oz)."

In 2019 Anna McNuff came to public attention when she ran the length of Britain barefoot. She has also cycled through all 50 American states.

Meanwhile Jamie McDonald, aka Adventureman, has run 5,500 miles across America and set a world record for running more than 500 miles on a treadmill in a week.

He also won the Pride of Britain fundraiser of the Year in 2019.