A couple from Oregon, USA, made history after welcoming twin babies from embryos that were frozen 30 years ago. The couple, Rachel and Philip Ridgeway welcomed their children on October 31 with Philip terming his children’s birth as mind boggling.
“I was 5 years old when God gave life to Lydia and Timothy, and he’s been preserving that life ever since. In a sense, they’re our oldest children, even though they’re our smallest children,” Ridgeway told CNN. The Ridgeway twins may have broken the record set by Molly Gibson who was born in 2020 from an embryo that had been frozen for about 27 years.
The embryos resulting into the birth of the twins were created from an anonymous couple using IVF and frozen in -128C (-200F) in liquid nitrogen on 22 April 1992. The couple then donated the embryos to the National Embryo Donation Center (NEDC) in Knoxville, Tennessee, with the hope that they could be used by another couple.
Embryo donation is a common practice in the USA where people who have undergone IVF may produce extra embryos. These extra embryos are donated either for research purposes of for later adoption by childless couples. According to the NEDC, there have been more than 1200 babies born from donated embryos.
Featured Image: The Ridgeway Twins. Photo| The National Embryo Donation Center via BBC News
