Conjoined twins are two babies who are born physically connected to each other. Conjoined twins develop when an early embryo only partially separates to form two individuals.
Although two babies develop from this embryo, they remain physically connected — most often at the chest, abdomen, or pelvis.
When a child pops out with six instead of five toes, even medical professionals consider the anomaly a marvel. Now imagine the instance of an expectant woman welcoming conjoined twins.
In modern times, Brittney and Abby Hensel command attention after headlining a reality show aired on TLC. Their commendable decision to break barriers and broadcast snippets of their daily lives has taught us a lot about conjoined twins.
Even though they grew up with a rare medical condition that essentially joined them for life, the Hensel siblings have always lived their lives to the fullest.
They continuously overcome obstacles in their way, and perhaps the heartwarming bit is that they always have each other as a support system. Their active lifestyle shows that they are an extraordinarily coordinated pair, and they figured out how to navigate life as a team.
While they are physically joined to the hip and share a single body, Abby and Brittany are two different people. They share arms, legs, and torso but have different heads and sets of internal organs.
Naturally, these sets of unique individuals raise long lists of questions. How do they go to the bathroom, and do the twins intend to pursue romantic relationships? Fortunately, the Hensel twins have offered answers to several of these questions through the years, and surprisingly, the answers are quite simple.
Often mistaken as one person, Abby and Brittany are two remarkably different young ladies. For starters, Abby is slightly taller than her sister. She stands at 5-foot 2-inches while Brittany is 4-foot 10-inches. The marginal height difference presents one of the challenges when shopping for appropriate clothes.
On top of that, they require unique outfits to dress their physique, and both have different tastes and preferences. Fortunately, they found a skilled seamstress who tailors the perfect ensembles for them.
Abby and Brittany control different halves of their body, and that alone presents challenges in how they approach daily life. It is perhaps most evident in the way they walk. While they have to coordinate how they walk, Abby moves on the flats of her heels while Brittany tip-toes around.
As toddlers, they had to learn how to crawl, stand, walk, and run in tandem. The same applies to writing and dancing, and while they had three arms at birth, their folks agreed to have the extra limb removed.
You would expect that sharing the same body means that when one gets sick, the other also experiences the same condition. That isn’t the case with the Hensel twins because strangely enough, they are never ill at the same time.
Her sister has gotten pneumonia twice while Abby has never developed the inflammatory infection. On one occasion when Brittany got sick, Abby became restless sitting in bed all day. They were much younger, and it was the last time any of them ever expressed a desire to separate their bodies.
Abby and Brittany might share several aspects, with their body being the main one, but they remain vastly different people. For instance, each sibling experiences different body temperatures at any given instance. According to Abby, she gets super-hot quite fast while Brittany doesn’t.
Given that they are individuals above all else, they also have different personalities. Abby is introverted compared to her sister who has a deathly fear of heights. Brittany’s heart rate spikes when she downs too many cups of joe while her sister doesn’t experience such an acceleration.
The siblings are also musically inclined, and in particular, they are skilled at playing the piano. Both can play the keyboard individually, but as a pair, Abby takes the left-hand side of the piano. They are equally as skilled in playing the guitar.
Their show aired for one season and offered viewers plenty of insight into their lives. The siblings have long left their days in the limelight behind but they found meaningful ways to leverage their moment of fame to propel their careers.
