MK sport older sister,Yanyan" />Photo: The older sister,Yanyan
A pregnant woman surnamed Xu from Yueyang successfully gave birth to Yanyan, her first daughter, on November 17, 2024. Typically, twins are born minutes or hours apart, but Xu’s arrived three days apart, the local newspaper reported.
This occurred because the twins had separate placentas and umbilical cords, according to Zhuang Yan, director of the neonatology department at the hospital where Xu gave birth early due to premature rupture of membranes, after which uterine contractions subsided and the cervix closed, allowing her sister Yuyu to remain in the womb, Zhuang said.
Zhuang said that the three extra days are critical for Yuyu, as the medical team utilized the three-day interval to administer prenatal corticosteroids and magnesium sulfate to Yuyu, who was still in utero. These treatments promoted her lung development and protected neurological function. On November 20, Yuyu was safely delivered.
As extremely premature twins, both infants required extended hospital care after birth. The older sister, Yanyan, faced particularly critical challenges. Weighing only 630 grams at birth, she was diagnosed as an extremely premature infant with extremely low birth weight and admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
Due to severe gastrointestinal immaturity, Yanyan developed necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), which required surgical intervention. After months of treatment, she was discharged on February 28.
Both twins will require regular follow-up appointments to monitor their physical and neurodevelopmental progress, Zhuang said.
Global Times
