A few minutes separate them, and yet they were not born in the same year. Twin sisters were born on Sunday night in Split (Croatia), on the Adriatic Sea.
While the former was born moments before the stroke of midnight on December 12, her sister arrived seconds later on January 31, Croatian public television HRT said. According to Damir Roje, head of the perinatology department at Split Hospital, the two little girls were born at 1:23 p.m. and 59:00 a.m.
"Nature creates all kinds of situations"
An "unusual situation" for Dr. Damir Roje: "It will be a beautiful situation in this happy family where we will celebrate a birthday on the 31st and another on January 1st. Nature creates all kinds of situations, including this one." According to him, the twins were born two minutes apart, just as they were due to move into 2024. "At midnight, one a little earlier, the other later," he told Croatian journalists, referring to a popular Croatian song, "Ovo Mi Je Škola" by Gibonni.
"It has happened before that twins are not born on the same day due to a delivery around midnight, but when it comes to the new year, it has never happened to us!" Marko Mimica, head of the maternity ward at Split Hospital, told HRT. The baby girl born on January 1 became "the first baby of 2024" in the country.
In accordance with local tradition for the first baby of a new year, the regional prefect visited the mother and the little girls, who are doing well, according to the local daily Slobodna Dalmacija.
However, this has already happened elsewhere in the world, ten years ago, when it moved to 2014. An American woman gave birth to a baby girl at 23:58 p.m. and a baby boy at 00:01 a.m. at a hospital in Washington, D.C.