A night nurse brought the twins to their mother and let her hold them. She agreed, but on the condition that she would keep custody and visit them regularly. When the twins were born, their mother was told they required full-time care from the State. They were born joined at the waist at a 180-degree angle with two heads, two torsos, four arms and one leg each, and a third, vestigial limb at their back that had some movement. The doctors told her she had delivered a severely disabled child ( урод) and she was not shown the babies. Masha and Dasha's mother, Yekaterina Krivoshlyapova, did not know she was having twins and spent two days and nights giving birth naturally.