Remember Phoebe Buffay from Friends TV series, freaking people out by saying that she carries her brother's babies? Well, two sisters almost did the same, but in reality.
Chris and Anne, from Ohio, carried the twin babies of the same man and even gave birth on the very same day. Sounds shocking and gross? Well, it isn't!
On the contrary, it is a story that proves how much two sisters can love and care for each other. Read below, and you'll see for yourself.
Anne and her partner had been trying to have a baby for five years, but with no luck. That led to their discouragement and hopelessness, as it happens with so many couples that are unable to conceive.
Knowing how much her sister wanted a baby, Chris offered to be the surrogate mother. As there was no assurance that an in vitro fertilization would be successful for Chris, Anne decided that she'd also give it a try. With the embryos being placed in both sisters, Anne believed that this would give them a higher chance of actually conceiving a baby. Soon, Chris tested positive – and they discovered that she was carrying twins! Quite amazingly, though, Anne also got pregnant – and she was also carrying twins.
Although previous pregnancies had ended in a miscarriage for Anne, it appears that carrying the twins along with Chris made her much tougher than before. Thanks to her sister's offer to become a surrogate mother for the couple, the two ended up having four children in one go!
Technically, the couple got quadruplets – Anna carried one pair of twin girls carried, and Chris carried one pair of twin boys. So the kids won’t be confused with their birthdays, considering they are quadruplets born to two different women but scientifically coming from the same father and mother, the two moms decided to give birth on the same date.
Surrogacy is the process of having a woman to bear a child for a couple to raise, usually with the man as the genetic father. Although surrogacy as a concept is known since ancient times, it wasn't until the late twentieth century until advanced medicine, along with different types of surrogacy, were finally available for intended parents. Not to mention, that, although the commercial surrogacy (where a surrogate is paid for carrying the child) industry kicked off in the late '70s, surrogacy remains a taboo matter today, with altruistic surrogacy (when a surrogate is given no financial gain for carrying a child) being illegal in ten countries and commercial surrogacy being illegal in 26 countries around the world.
