A US couple were coming to terms with news one of their unborn twins wouldn't make it, when an ultrasound scan melted their hearts.
Kansas couple Ian and Brittani McIntire discovered they were expecting twins at an ultrasound scan - only to be told one of them was not likely to make it.
Brittani McIntire was carrying a boy and girl, but was told the boy had a hole in his heart and an abnormal brain.
"He's only weighing nine ounces [255 grams] and his sister is over two pounds [907 grams]," the expectant mother told Pix 11. "His only chance of survival would be heart surgery but they wouldn't do heart surgery because of his brain."
Heartbroken, their spirits lifted when the doctors produced a still image from an ultrasound showing the babies appearing to hold hands in the womb.
It looked like Mason, on the left, had his tiny hand wrapped around the finger of his growing twin sister, Madilyn.
While the twins would be in different amniotic sacs, it was still an amazing sight for the parents-to-be.
"Most twins when she's trying to take pictures and stuff they're kicking each other and hitting each other and she said with our twins it seems like she was very protective over him," Brittani McIntire said.
"It's just nice with everything going on. I know I'm holding him, I'm carrying him but I just want to be there for him and not knowing and she's the only one who can actually be there and holding onto him through it and so it's comforting to know that if he does pass he won't be alone," she said.
Stuff.co.nz