IRISH TWINS WERE BORN 87 DAYS APART, A WORLD RECORD
Maria Jones-Elliott of Glenmore, County Kilkenny, gave birth to her daughter Amy on June 1, 2012, and then her contractions stopped dead, leaving Amy’s twin sister Katie in the womb until August 27, 2012. That left 87 days between the two births, beating the previous record of 84 days, because doctors tried to induce labour, it failed, and Maria and her husband Chris decided to let nature take its course.
The family called the girls their “little miracles” when they told the story to the Daily Mirror. The sisters now have birthdays in different months.
One baby in intensive care, one still in the womb
Maria and Chris already had two older children, Olivia and Jack, Extra.ie reported. The twin pregnancy went smoothly until Maria was 23 weeks and five days along. She felt unwell at work, her GP sent her straight to hospital, and within hours her waters broke.
After two days of labour at Waterford Regional Hospital, Amy arrived at exactly 24 weeks, almost four months before her September 21 due date. She weighed 1 lb 3 oz and went straight to intensive care.
Then everything stopped. “They stopped dead – it was like I’d never even given birth,” Maria said.
In a typical twin birth, the uterus contracts and delivers both babies within about an hour, as The Epoch Times reported. Doctors tried to induce Katie the next day, Fox News reported, but nothing happened.
Dr. Eddie O’Donnell, the consultant obstetrician in charge of the delivery, told the Mirror it was safer for Katie to stay put. Waiting carried a risk of life-threatening infection for both mother and baby, so both were monitored constantly, but every extra day in the womb improved Katie’s odds.
Maria made up her mind that she would only leave hospital with both her girls. “It was the hardest three months of our lives,” she told the Mirror. “But Chris kept saying, ‘Where there’s life there’s hope.'”
It was four days before Maria could even see Amy, and five weeks before she was allowed to hold her. Maria said Katie kicked and moved the moment Amy’s feet rested on her bump. The next day, she said, Amy turned her head toward her sister in the womb.
Katie arrives
Doctors induced Maria on August 27, 2012, at 36 weeks and three days. Katie was born after just over an hour, weighing 5 lb 10 oz.
Two hours later, the nurses put Katie’s cot beside Amy’s incubator, then placed Katie inside it facing her sister. Maria said Amy smiled right away.
Katie went home five days later. Amy followed on October 16, 2012, after seven more weeks in care.
Dr. Animitra Das, who led the team caring for Amy, said Amy’s chance of long-term problems had been 35 to 40 percent, including blindness, deafness and cerebral palsy. “I’ve never come across any set of twins born so far apart – it is extraordinary,” she said.
Dr. O’Donnell said that having both babies and their mother come through healthy was “the medical equivalent of a lottery win.” UPI reported that the longest gap he had personally seen before this was two weeks.
Registering the births caused a stir of its own. Maria said the certificates read “Amy Elliott, Twin One, date of birth 1 June” and “Katie Elliott, Twin Two, date of birth 27 August.”
The record
The previous mark was 84 days, set by Pennsylvania twins Hanna and Eric Lynn, according to Fox News. When the Mirror first reported the Elliott story in April 2013, Guinness World Records spokesman Damian Field said that “if the claim of 87 days between the birth of the twins is substantiated they will break the world record.” IrishCentral and ITV News followed with their own reports.
On September 11, 2026, The Times of India reported that Amy and Katie hold the Guinness World Record for the longest interval between twin births.
