Lydia and Timothy Ridgeway, twin infants, have made history as the first babies to be born from the longest-frozen embryos ever to result in a live birth, as confirmed by the National Embryo Donation Center in the United States.

These remarkable twins were born on October 31st, and their development began from embryos that had been frozen for an astonishing 30 years. Prior to this, the previous record was held by Molly Gibson, who was born in 2020 from an embryo that had been frozen for nearly 27 years.

Phillip Ridgeway, the twins’ father, shared his sentiments with CNN, saying, “When the embryos were created, I was just five years old. God has blessed us by preserving the lives of Lydia and Timothy since then. In a way, they are our oldest children, despite being the youngest.”

The twins are not the Ridgeways’ first children, as they already have four other children ranging in age from two to eight years old.

The embryos were originally created through in vitro fertilization (IVF) for an anonymous married couple. The husband was approximately 50 years old at the time, and the couple utilized a 34-year-old egg donor. These embryos were then frozen on April 22, 1992, and carefully stored in liquid nitrogen at a temperature close to 200 degrees below zero, reminiscent of a propane tank.

The embryos remained in a fertility lab until 2007 when the couple who created them generously donated them to the National Embryo Donation Center in Knoxville, Tennessee, with the hope that another couple would have the chance to utilize them. After three decades had passed, the Ridgeways were selected as the recipients of these special embryos. On February 28, the National Embryo Donation Center thawed the embryos, and the IVF transfer occurred on March 2, 2022.

Lydia, weighing approximately 2,300 kg, was the first to be born on October 31st, followed by Timothy, weighing around 2,700 kg. The Ridgeway family is now immersed in a sea of joy and cherishing every precious moment spent with their twins.