Twins Born 87 Days Apart Survive, Set World Record

A set of twins born 87 days apart have already made world history. Not bad, considering both of the little girls are less than a year old!

Amy and Katie are adorable, healthy babies living in Waterford, Ireland, with mom Maria Jones-Elliot, dad Chris Elliot and siblings Olivia and Jack. But for a time, it looked like both wouldn't make it.

“The doctors told me there was very little hope of them surviving as they were so premature," Maria recalled, explaining that her water broke at 23 weeks.

Dr. Eddie O'Donnell works at Waterford Regional Hospital, where the twins were born. "Most people haven't even heard of this," O'Donnell said. "You can end up losing a twin, it could be stillborn."

Despite the odds, little Amy was born on June 1, 2012. Four months premature, she weighed just over one pound.

"Amy was fighting for her life in an incubator. Katie was struggling to survive in my womb," Jones-Elliott said. "After hours, Chris and I said, 'Enough is enough.'"

"'Let nature take its course.' It was the hardest three months."

But they made it. Doctors induced Jones-Elliot a second time on August 27, during her 36th week of pregnancy, and after about an hour, Katie emerged.

"For a baby delivered at 23 weeks to survive, is a huge achievement from everyone’s point of view," Dr. Sam Coulter Smith, chief of Dublin’s Rotunda Hospital, said.

"For a 23-week twin to survive is even bigger because twins often behave more prematurely than singleton babies. That really is right at the absolute border of viability."

It is believed that the mom has set the Guinness World Record title for Longest interval between birth of twins, though this is still being looked into.

The current record holder is said to be Peggy Lynn of Huntingdon, Penn., whose daughter Hanna and son Eric 84 arrived days apart in 1995-96.

Record or no record, wow! Congratulations to the happy family!