14 DAY TRIAL // A pair of identical twin sisters from North East England seem to live parallel lives. They work on the same job, they found out they were pregnant on the same day and now they gave birth within hours of each other.
It's a known fact that twins have a special relationship and share a stronger bond than other siblings, but what happened to Heather Richardson and Sarah Fidler defies all odds. The two sisters say they really are very close, but they admit that this coincidence took them by surprise.
“We do feel the same pains and if the other one is upset, we can feel it. We are really close and have been ever since we were little but I can’t believe this. The staff at all the hospitals involved said they have never heard anything like it,” says Heather, who lives in North Tyneside, according to Chronicle Live.
The 35-year-old twins planned their pregnancies, but they were given different due dates so they didn’t expect their babies to arrive together.
Heather gave birth to Emelie Frances by Caesarian section at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle at 1.20am, on Thursday. Her sister Sarah went into labor at the same time and she gave birth to her son Austin Gibbs 13 hours later at Wansbeck General Hospital in Ashington.
"I honestly didn't think that I would go into labour at the same time. My contractions started at 1.20am, the exact moment Emelie was born by C-section, and I had Austin at 2.55pm that day," said Sarah.
Now, they are both at North Tyneside General Hospital for their post-natal care in next door cubicles.
The two sisters studied at Sunderland University and they both work as science technicians at St Thomas More RC Academy at North Shields.
The case is extremely rare, with a 400,000-1 chance of the babies to arrive on the same day.