Mom Gives Birth To Twins 3 Years Younger Than Her

Most new moms are anywhere between 18 and 45 years older than their newborns, but for one woman, that wasn't at all the case. In fact, her kids were actually just three years younger than her. It seems impossible but it happened thanks to modern medicine.

Back in 1992, two embryos were frozen and stored in liquid nitrogen. Well recently, 32-year-old mother of four Rachel Ridgeway and her husband decided that they wanted to adopt the embryos, and through in-vitro fertilization, Rachel carried them to term and at age 33, gave birth to her fifth and sixth kids, Timothy and Lydia. The twins are the oldest embryos ever to go on to a live birth.

Their biological parents have stayed anonymous but had donated leftover embryos following their own in vitro fertilization journey. The embryos were categorized as "special consideration" because they were given by parents who had a known history of genetic disorders, in this case, ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, which claimed the life of the twins' biological father. Rachel told Insider, "We found out that these kids are rarely looked at because many parents coming into the process are wondering what they could have. It didn't really matter to us if they're considered perfect or not."

The pregnancy and birth were pretty smooth, with Timothy weighing in at six pounds, seven ounces and Lydia at five pounds, 11 ounces. Both babies, in a way, were three years younger than their mom and five years younger than their dad, who said of that fact, "It's mind-blowing to think about. Pretty much everybody we've talked to has trouble wrapping their brain around it."

The parents have every intention of discussing their kids' history with them. Rachel stated, "Our plans for the twins is to make sure their adoption is a part of their story. We want to keep it as a normal part of their lives. They'll always know that they are adopted. We want to make sure that they know that embryo adoption makes them special."