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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipHow to Watch Twice Born
Twice Born is available to stream on pbs.org and the free PBS App, available on iPhone, Apple TV, Android TV, Android smartphones, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Fire Tablet, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, and Vizio.
About the Show
Step inside the medical frontier of fetal surgery with "Twice Born," a gripping series that takes an intimate look at the Special Delivery Unit at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where rare surgeries are done on babies still inside their mothers’ wombs. With exclusive access to the elite unit, (where the production crew was embedded for 15 months), you’ll live with expecting parents facing a gutwrenching decision: should they risk pre-natal surgery even if they may lose their child?
Episode 1
Parents journey from all over, hoping to find cures for their unborn babies’ maladies. Episode 1 introduces Lesly, a resourceful 23-year-old, single mother whose unborn baby, Lilly, has developed a massive tumor growing from her mouth. The episode includes never-before-seen operating room footage as Dr. Holly Hedrick performs a rare EXIT procedure and attempts to remove the tumor while the fetus is still attached to her mother. Meanwhile, Shelly and Bobby, a couple whose unborn child suffers from spina bifida, wait anxiously to find out if they are candidates for fetal surgery.
Episode 2
When their unborn twins are diagnosed with Twin-Twin Transfusion Syndrome, Tina and Brion make an urgent visit to The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The realities of life in the Special Delivery Unit become clear when the doctors deliver unexpected news to the couple. Bobby waits anxiously for the results of the pivotal surgery Shelly and the baby undergo to repair the fetus’s spine. The unique access of the series’ camera crew gives viewers a close-up look at this surgery on a baby in the womb — the first time ever in a major television broadcast.
Episode 3
The final episode delivers deeper insight into the personality and motivations of Dr. Scott Adzick, who takes viewers behind the normally closed doors of his life outside the hospital. This hour features a plastic surgeon beginning to reshape baby Lilly’s face, which culminates in a carefully planned reconstructive operation. Episode 3 includes an intimate view of the much-anticipated delivery of Bobby and Shelly’s baby. By the end of the hour, Shelly and Bobby have returned to Boston and begin to learn the longterm impact of the fetal surgery on their daughter and what lies ahead for her. The episode also chronicles the story of Geneva and Reggie, a couple from North Carolina whose world is shaken when doctors reveal that their unborn child has developed an often fatal lower urinary tract obstruction.