Melbourne premature twins go viral: Hand-holding twins video gives hope to parents of premature babies

Anthea Jackson-Rushford, a Melbourne mother, gave birth to premature twins Kristian and Kristiana about three weeks ago at the Monash Children’s Hospital. The newborns were 11 weeks premature, weighed less than a kilo and had to be put into assisted ventilation. Both Anthea and her husband Glen got to “kangaroo cuddle” their severely premature babies only last week.

It was four days after the birth at 28 weeks gestation on Jan. 4, reports Herald Sun. As this was a special moment, the parents decided to photograph and video the special hug. To everybody’s surprise, there was a moment when Kristian reached out to his younger sister, born 11 minutes apart, and held her hand.

The loving touch between the two has taken the Internet by storm and warmed hearts around the globe. The photos and the video have been viewed more than 9 million times after they were shared by various media outlets. The couple posted four videos and photos of this special moment on Facebook.

Mum Anthea said that while some people may not like seeing babies in feeding tubes and ventilation masks, she hopes that the images can give hope to parents of premature babies.

“I want to show people that our babies will be fine. It is a roller coaster, but I know how to ride it now,” she said.

Regarding the hug, Anthea said she never imagined that babies so young could reach out and do that.

“They had different placentas — different hotel rooms inside, I call them — so they couldn’t touch before birth. But in some of the scans their feet were together or their heads sometimes, trying to be close,” she added.

The mum hopes that will share the same kind of bond for the rest of their lives and that if they fight when they grow up, she would show them these images and videos to make them make up.

Kristian and Kristiana are likely to be in hospital until their due date of March 27.