World’s most premature twins, now aged two, continue to defy all odds

Now two years and four months old, the world’s most premature twins Adiah and Adrial Nadarajah (Canada) continue to defy the odds given to them by doctors.

Both are healthy, active toddlers who are making “really great progress” with the development of their motor skills, according to their mother Shakina.

Shakina was told that her babies were “not viable” when she was in labour, and even when she was moved to a specialist hospital in Toronto, doctors told her that going through with the birth would be a “death sentence” for the babies.

The twins were born 126 days early on 4 March 2022, exactly 22 weeks into the pregnancy; if they’d been born even one hour earlier, doctors would have made no attempt to save their lives.

Weighing a combined 750 g (1.65 lb), they became the lightest twins at birth in recorded history.

Most hospitals do not resuscitate premature babies born before 24-26 weeks, and this can extend up to 31 weeks at some hospitals.

The previous record holders were Keeley and Kambry Ewoldt (USA, b. 24 November 2018) who were born 125 days early.

After being successfully resuscitated, Adiah and Adrial spent six months in the hospital’s care, during which time they suffered from brain bleeds, sepsis, and issues with fluid management.

“We watched the babies almost die before our eyes many times,” Shakina revealed.

Adiah spent 161 days in the neonatal intensive care unit, and Adrial was discharged a week later.

When we announced their record last year on their first birthday, the twins were growing well and meeting all the milestones for their corrected age (their chronological age minus the number of months early they were born).

“We made it a point to spend more than 10 hours daily with them,” Shakina said.

“We saw so much progress in their development daily. The babies were able to overcome every major medical challenge that they faced.”

Now over two years old, the twins continue to disprove doctors who said they’d be severely disabled.

Their father, Kevin, said: “It’s been amazing to see the twins grow and their personalities emerge. They’ve started saying new words, singing songs, so it’s exciting to see them interact with each other and emerge out of their shell.”

Adrial enjoys running, climbing, and reading, whilst Adiah is able to walk well and she loves music.

Shakina and Kevin hope that the twins’ record-breaking birth will inspire policy change to allow extremely pre-term babies such as theirs to receive medical intervention when born.

“We are excited for the story to create more awareness about prematurity and how early babies can be born and how early it can be viable,” Kevin said.

Shakina added: “We do hope that this record is one that is broken because it means that more pre-term babies are being saved and thriving.”