Miracle twins defy odds with record-breaking premature birth

I'm Shakina

And I'm Kevin, and we're the parents of a DNA drill. We were born 22 weeks, exactly

They were born 126 days early. Hi, baby, Phil. In many parts of the world, babies are not resuscitated, or no medical intervention is provided

if they are born before 24 weeks, 27 weeks in some places

even if they're born before 31 weeks, nothing is done to save their lives. And so we're really excited that this record

has been raising awareness around the world about the viability of twins born earlier than 24, 27 or 31 weeks

And so we're hopeful that policies will change around the world to allow twins born earlier to receive the medical intervention

that will give them a hope a chance at life. For the first 21 weeks, everything in the pregnancy was going very smoothly

The ultrasounds, the tests, results, all came back fine and the babies were progressing smoothly

Everything changed drastically on March 2nd 2022 when Shakina was 21 weeks and five days into the pregnancy To our absolute shock within a few minutes of arriving at the hospital we were told that I was in labor and that the twins would be born within the next few hours

The first thing I was told at the hospital was that if the babies were born even a few minutes before they turned 22 weeks, it would be a death sentence for them

as the hospital was only able to provide medical intervention and resuscitate or intubate babies born at 22 weeks and after

We were warned that even if the babies survived their extreme preterm birth and resuscitation, they would be faced with significant disabilities impacting their quality of life

Although the outlook presented to us was very grim, we had full belief in our babies

Miraculously, although I had now been in labor for more than 40 hours

the babies were not born until exactly one hour after they turned 22 weeks on March 4th, 2022

Our daughter, Adia, weighed 330 grams, and our son, Adra, weighed 420 grams

You were told that Adia was the smallest baby the hospital I ever seen And we made it a point to spend more than 10 hours daily with them And we saw so much progress in their development daily

the babies were able to overcome every major medical challenge that they faced

Altogether, Adia spent 161 days in the NICU, and Ayo spent 167 days in the NICU

They came home almost six months later, and to the surprise of everyone

they did not need any oxygen at home or breathing tubes or feeding tubes

They were able to feed and breathe independently. Since coming out of hospital and being back home, it's been amazing to see the twins grow and their personalities emerge

They recently turned two. And they've started saying new words, singing songs

So it's exciting to see them. interact with each other and emerge out of their shelf

They do you. Happy birthday. Adriel is very active. He loves climbing

All of our furniture. He is a really good runner. Adia also walks really well

They making really great progress with the gross motor skills and fine motor skills They have a really sweet relationship with each other Although they do fight a lot over toys and books they are best friends

We always see them sneaking hugs and sneaking kisses. Although they're twins, they do have very different personalities as well and very unique interest

Adia absolutely loves music. She loves humming. She picks up melodies really quickly and she's able to sing along or hum along to the tunes

of various songs. Adriel is a bookworm. He absolutely loves books. And so what he loves doing is bringing books to me

bringing books to Kevin and asking us to read books out to him. Twins don't actually know that they've recorded holders yet

But as parents, we're just incredibly proud of how far they've come

and how they've been able to beat the odds. They were first handed to them

And we're just excited for a story to create more awareness. about prematurity and how early babies can be born and how early it can be viable

More importantly, we've said this once before and we'll say this again. We do hope that this record is one that is broken because it means that more preterm babies are being saved and thriving