Couple From Us Welcomes Twins Born From Frozen Embryos From 30 Years Ago

An Oregon couple has welcomed twins from embryos that were frozen in April 1992, breaking the previous record. Molly Gibson, who was born in 2020 from an embryo that had been frozen for over 27 years, held the previous record. The "world's oldest babies," the Oregon twins, were born on October 31 to Rachel and Philip Ridgeway.

According to the National Embryo Donation Center, the twins, Lydia and Timothy Ridgeway, were the longest-frozen embryos to give birth to a living child. . Baby boy Timothy was born at 6 pounds, 7 ounces, and baby girl Lydia was delivered at 5 pounds, 11 ounces.

The children were born as a consequence of the donation of embryos, typically from parents who had surplus embryos after having a successful in vitro fertilisation. The embryos were donated thirty years ago by an unidentified donor couple who had utilised in vitro fertilisation and had cryopreserved them at 200 degrees below zero.

The couple gave the embryos to the National Embryo Donation Center in 2007, after the embryos had been frozen on April 22, 1992, and had been kept in cold storage at a reproductive lab on the West Coast. Lydia and Timothy were born from the frozen embryos fifteen years later.

The Ridgeways opted to use donated embryos to conceive more children despite already having four older kids who are ages 8, 6, 3, and almost 2. The pair deliberately searched for donors in the "special consideration" category, which refers to embryos for which it had been challenging to find recipients.