Twins have been born who are believed to have developed from the oldest frozen embryos leading to a live birth ever.
Rachel and her husband, Philip, became pregnant three decades after the embryos that led to their daughter and son – Timothy and Lydia – were frozen in April 1992.
The embryos were donated by the twin’s biological parents, who wish to remain anonymous, after they went through in vitro fertilization.
They gave them to the Christian non-profit called the National Embryo Donation Center (NEDC) in Knoxville, Tennessee which transfers frozen embryos only to heterosexual couples who have been married for three years.
“I was five years old when God gave life to these embryos,” Rachel’s husband Phillip, a devout Christian, told Insider.
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The Ridgeways already had four children who are now between the ages of two and eight. They first approached the NDEC in 2019.
“We needed some fertility assistance to conceive our three oldest children,” Rachel said.
She added: “We decided to put the money that we would normally use for fertility care towards embryo adoption.”
However, a few months later they naturally conceived their fourth child but, after the birth, they still wanted more children.
Phillip added: “We’ve always thought, ‘Let’s have as many kids that God wants to give us’. We thought, ‘We’re not done yet if that’s God’s will’.”
He said that the pair were not bothered by the age of the embryos. The twins’ biological father died of ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease.
“There’s a possibility that it could be a genetic disorder that they may or may not have. But we didn’t care,” Rachel said.
She gave birth to two healthy babies on October 31, 2022.
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