The twins hold an incredible world record
Twins have been born from 30-year-old frozen embryos that are only three years younger than their mum.
Rachel Ridgeway gave birth to the twins, Timothy and Lydia, who were frozen in a lab in April 1992 and are now thought to be the oldest known embryos that led to a live birth. The previous record holder was a girl born in 2017, named Molly Gibson. She had been stored for 24 years.
The infants’ biological parents, who have stayed anonymous, donated their leftover embryos to the National Embryo Donation Center, in Knoxville, Tennessee, after going through in vitro fertilisation. The Christian nonprofit, which offers frozen embryo transfers only to heterosexual couples who’ve been married for at least three years, stored them in liquid nitrogen along with thousands of other embryos, Insider reported.
Rachel’s husband, Philip noted: “I was 5 years old when God gave life to these embryos.”
And added that Rachel was just three at the time of their conception.
The couple now has six children.
“It’s mind-blowing to think about,” the dad said. “Pretty much everybody we’ve talked to has trouble wrapping their brain around it.”
The Ridgeways, who had four kids between the ages of 2 and 8, initially approached the NEDC in December 2019, having needed fertility assistance to conceive their three oldest children. They hoped to welcome their fourth child in 2020.
The couple adopted a frozen embryo, but a few months later naturally conceived their fourth child, now 2.
Still determined to have more children, the couple, who live in Vancouver, Washington, revisited their plan, selecting their embryos in December 2021 from the “special consideration” section of the NEDC.
“These embryos are often overlooked because they were donated by parents who had a known history of certain genetic disorders,” Rachel told Insider.
The 34-year-old said they were told the twins’ biological father had died of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Philip told Insider that they weren’t bothered about the age of the embryos. Three of them were transferred, and two developed. Rachel gave birth on 31 October 2022 at 37 weeks and two days.
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