Mother who gave birth to one black and one albino twin reveals she initially thought her daughter was the WRONG baby – and admits strangers don’t believe the children are hers
- Judith Nwokocha, 38, a photographer from Canada, gave birth to twins after IVF
- But when she actually gave birth she first thought she was given the wrong baby
- Her twins were born in 2016 – a black boy named Kamsi and an albino girl, Kachi
A mother who gave birth to one black and one albino twin has revealed her shock at first seeing them – and initially believed she had been brought the wrong baby.
Judith Nwokocha, 38, a Nigerian-born photographer from Calgary was astonished when she first met her baby boy, Kamsi, who was black, and her little girl Kachi, who was later diagnosed with albinism.
She and her husband, who is also black, struggled for eight years before falling pregnant through IVF, and now find that people don’t believe the twins, now three, are theirs because of their different skin colours.
Yet the siblings ‘haven’t noticed anything different’, the doting parent claimed, and have a ‘great’ relationship.
Albinism is an inherited condition and if both parents carry the faulty gene, then there is a one in four chance that their child will be born with the condition, which affected Kachi, but not her twin brother.
There are no figures available for how many sets of twins are born where only one has albinism, although other cases have been reported in South America and Africa.
Other cases have been reported where twins are born of different races, but these figures refer to cases among mixed race couples where the egg and sperm that fuse contain gene coding for one skin colour – and the chances are one in a million.
Judith Nwokocha, 38, a photographer from Calgary, Canada, was astonished when she first met her baby boy, Kamsi, who was black, and her little girl Kachi, who was later diagnosed with albinism. Pictured: The twins as newborns (left) and now (right)
The Nigerian-born mother (pictured with her children shortly after their birth), explained that people don’t believe the twins, now three, are hers
‘Most people don’t believe they’re twins,’ Judith said. ‘It’s also [Kachi’s] hair texture that confuses them. Someone has asked me, “Where are her parents?”.
‘I can see the look of shock in their faces when I tell them I’m her mother.’
Yet Judith insisted that she has never had any horrible comments about the twins’ different skin colour, explaining: ‘I haven’t had any negative reaction from anyone, they always tell me she is beautiful.’
The siblings (pictured recently) ‘haven’t noticed anything different’, the doting parent claimed, and have a ‘great’ relationship
Judith (pictured left, when pregnant with the twins) insisted that she has never had any horrible comments about her children’s (pictured right) different skin colour
Shortly after discovering she was pregnant, Judith was told the twins might be born with Down syndrome, with Kachi always behind her brother in terms of growth.
She said: ‘I remember going for my first scan when they told me, “You are having a baby”, and I said, “No, I’m having two”, I knew, without a doubt.
‘The second scan revealed we’re having twins. I was told the twins might have Down Syndrome. At seven weeks, Kachi was always behind.
WHAT IS OCULOCUTANEOUS ALBINISM?
Oculocutaneous albinism is a condition that affects an estimated one in 20,000 people worldwide from birth.
It is the most common type of the two forms of albinism and affects the skin, hair and eyes.
It is an inherited condition and if both parents carry the faulty gene, then there is a one in four chance that their child will be born with the condition.
Individuals with albinism typically have very fair skin and white or light blonde hair.
It also reduces the pigmentation of the coloured part of the eye – the iris – and the light sensitive tissue at the back of the eye – the retina.
People from ethnic groups with darker pigmentation tend to have darker coloured eyes.
Those with the condition usually have vision problems such as reduced sharpness, increased sensitivity to light (photophobia) and involuntary eye movements (nystagmus).
Because the twins are non-identical, this is explains why only one inherited the faulty gene from their parents.
In a 2010 article in the Journal of Perinatology, researchers described the case of twin girls being born to parents of Congolese origin, where one was black and one was albino.
They ruled out heteropaternity as a cause – where there are two different fathers – and concluded through testing that one child was albino.
Adorable Kamsi (right), and Kachi from Calgary, Canada, when they were first born
Kachi (pictured with her brother) was diagnosed with Oculocutaneous Albinism (OCA) type 2 – an inherited condition where people do not produce sufficient melanin and this affects their eyes, skin and hair
Apart from sensitive skin and eyesight, Kachi (pictured with her brother) is perfectly healthy, according to her mother
‘She was very small, she stopped growing. I remember the doctors telling me she might not make it. I’m so grateful she did.’
Judith added: ‘She didn’t cry initially, so I was thinking “what’s going to happen, how is she going to be?”.
‘I was shocked. I thought they had handed me somebody else’s baby, I didn’t believe she was mine.
‘It never crossed my mind I was going to have an albino baby, we don’t have any in my family, nor my husband’s family.
BLACK AND WHITE TWINS: A MILLION TO ONE CHANCE
The odds against of a mixed race couple having twins of dramatically different colour are a million to one.
Skin colour is believed to be determined by up to seven different genes working together.
If a woman is of mixed race, her eggs will usually contain a mixture of genes coding for both black and white skin.
Similarly, a man of mixed race will have a variety of different genes in his sperm. When these eggs and sperm come together, they will create a baby of mixed race.
But, very occasionally, the egg or sperm might contain genes coding for one skin colour. If both the egg and sperm contain all white genes, the baby will be white. And if both contain just the versions necessary for black skin, the baby will be black.
For a mixed-race couple, the odds of either of these scenarios is around 100 to one. But both scenarios can occur at the same time if the woman conceives non-identical twins, another 100 to one chance.
This involves two eggs being fertilised by two sperm at the same time, which also has odds of around 100 to one.
If a sperm containing all-white genes fuses with a similar egg and a sperm coding for purely black skin fuses with a similar egg, two babies of dramatically different colours will be born.
The odds of this happening are 100 x 100 x 100 – a million to one.
‘It was a real shock for me, I was thinking, “What are they doing, why did they give me someone else’s baby?”
‘And then I thought, “Could it be I got somebody else’s?. But I was just glad she was perfect. Both were healthy.
Judith added: ‘Other than the fact that she is different colour, she looks exactly like me. ‘
Kachi was diagnosed with Oculocutaneous Albinism (OCA) type 2 – an inherited condition where people do not produce sufficient melanin and this affects their eyes, skin and hair.
It is an inherited condition and if both parents carry the faulty gene, then there is a one in four chance that their child will be born with the condition.
Judith said she was initially concerned for Kachi (pictured laughing with her brother) and how people would react to her
All smiles! The twins pose with little guitars as they model for their mother during a photoshoot
The beaming three-year-old twins share a giggle as they sit next to one another on a sofa
Judith said she was initially concerned for Kachi and how people would react to her.
Yet apart from sensitive skin and eyesight, the little one is perfectly healthy and although she turns a few heads when they’re out and about, Judith doesn’t let that get her down.
The mother said: ‘It took me a while to realise I’m going to be raising an albino. I was really concerned about what people were going to say, it’s not a very usual thing to have an albino and a black baby.
‘I was also sad, I was worried about how she’s going to go through society, how people are going to treat her. It didn’t affect my affection or love at all of course.’
Photographer Judith struggled for eight years before falling pregnant to the twins (pictured) through IVF
‘Most people don’t believe they’re twins,’ Judith said. ‘It’s also [Kachi’s] hair texture that confuses them’. Pictured: The twins posing up in costumes for a photograph
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