I didn't know I was pregnant until my second trimester - and then came another shock

A young mother has revealed she only discovered she was having twins a week before giving birth.

Basetsana Moeketsi, 28, from Johannesburg, South Africa , didn't even know she was expecting until more than halfway into her pregnancy - but received yet another surprise days before she went into labour.

'I didn't have a bump or anything,' she explained. ' I only started noticing when I was five months along.

'I started feeling nauseous and that's why I went to the doctor. I have a three-year-old so I had been pregnant before and this was nothing like that.'

However, blood tests showed that Basetsana was in her second trimester - and the scan showed a single baby boy.

'There was nothing irregular and no signs of pregnancy,' she recounted.

'As my pregnancy went on I still wasn't showing but once I reached about eight months my bump grew dramatically.

'The doctors said the bump probably looked bigger because I am so short - I'm 4ft 11in - but they wanted to refer me to a specialist in case there was excess fluid in my womb, just to be careful.

'The moment the specialist saw me he said, "You're carrying twins".

'I was overwhelmed. There were mixed emotions from the pregnancy itself then the twins. It was surprise on top of surprise.

'I prepared myself for one boy and bought boy clothes only to find out they were fraternal twins and the second one was a girl.'

The final scan showed two heads and one week after she discovered she was having twins, Basetsana was booked in for a caesarean section and gave birth to Miracle and Blessing.

Basetsana attended three ultrasound appointments before the specialist scan but Miracle was hiding behind her brother and was not visible.

The twins' father Gabriel, 30, comes from a family with six sets of twins - and 13 children from one mother.

Basetsana said: 'He wasn't surprised that they were twins but it was obviously a shock. He was so happy.'

Miracle and Blessing, now one year old, are fraternal twins but Basetsana still had trouble telling them apart.

'They looked identical,' she said. 'I had to literally tag their nappies to tell them apart and remember I only had boys' clothes which made it worse.

'My first daughter, Adorable, is so happy to be around them - they're like triplets!'

Basetsana added: 'I never thought of having three kids. I thought I didn't even want more than one. When you are a first-time mum everything becomes so overwhelming.

'I didn't even get the chance to wish for more babies, babies just arrived!

'You don't just find twins in every household. They are a blessing.'

Basetsana continued; 'All I can say is everything happens for a reason. Mentally you think that you are not ready but there is a reason why you are given twins.

'It's only a matter of time until you are convinced that you can handle it and they bring so much joy.

'There is nothing easy in life but if there's one thing I will not regret it's being their mum.'

Basetsana has a combined social media following of 467,000 and told her story to her followers.

The experience motivated her to write and self-publish a book called And When You Pray Tonight. Each page gives the reader prayer guidance and inspiration.

She said: 'It started off as tweets about my personal prayer and then I framed it as if I was talking to somebody else.

'I was telling people what to pray for then I turned it into a book and it's sold worldwide.'