A mum has revealed the heartbreaking and controversial decision she made to hand back her adopted babies after falling pregnant naturally.
UK mother-of-one Ali Sanders went through the gruelling process of adopting twin boys with her husband Michael after finding out she was infertile.
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Speaking to MailOnline, Ali said her maternal instincts failed to kick in and was unable to bond with her new eight-month-old sons.
'It felt like I was playing — that it wasn’t real,’ she admitted. ‘What made it worse was that Michael bonded with the babies immediately. He already felt like Daddy.’
'My overriding memory is of sitting there praying that the twins wouldn’t wake up, because when they did, I’d have to go back to pretending to be a mother again.'
Ali's husband convinced her to visit a GP the day after they brought the twins home as she felt 'out of sorts'.
Incredibly, a urine sample revealed Ali was pregnant.
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Feeling shocked, Ali and Michael called their social workers. Legally, the boys weren't fully adopted into their care yet as the paperwork could take months.
By the end of the day, they had sent the twins home back to their foster carers.
'I don’t think the guilt will ever go. I let down these babies who had already been let down,' Ali said.
Ali gave birth to a little boy named Jacob and is now expecting a baby girl.
She and Michael never saw the twins again and they were later adopted into a 'forever home'.
