As she is on her second day of labour, doctors are telling parents that if babies are born even minutes before their 22nd week they will not receive care, the Guinness World Record points out. Most hospitals don’t try to save babies born before 24 to 26 weeks, but the mother was lucky enough to be cared for at Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital, which specializes in neonatal intensive care.
Despite heavy bleeding, the mother says she did her best to “hold the babies” a few more hours when she was 21 weeks and six days pregnant. Her waters finally broke 15 minutes after midnight and less than two hours later, “both twins were born and were successfully resuscitated”. The father, Kevin Nadarajah, says he spent the night praying, “face bathed in tears”.
A photo published by Guinness shows the two one-year-old babies close to their world record certificate. Young Adiah looks surprised, her mouth wide open, her brother Adrial seems more pensive. A portrait very different from that taken at birth, when the newborns were very thin, the scarlet body under their transparent skin. The twins had to remain hospitalized for six months and survived several complications, including a cerebral hemorrhage and sepsis. Since then, they are still followed by many specialists, but they “are doing very well”say their parents.