Twin dads, twin births! hs!
These identical brothers had identical births … on opposite sides of the world!
This is the first time baby Imogen’s met her cousin Harvey – and the two have rather a lot in common. Not only are their dads Gareth and Stefan Kershaw identical twins married to women called Kate and Katie, the first cousins were born on the same day!
When Perth-based couple Gareth and Kate saw the “positive” line pop up on the pregnancy test, they were overjoyed. They sent a picture of the result to Gareth’s twin Stefan and his wife Katie, who live in northern England.
A few days later Gareth got a message back from Stefan.
“It was a picture of a pregnancy test. I thought he’d sent my photo back to me by mistake. But then I looked more closely and realised he was telling us he was going to be a dad, too!” says Gareth.
In fact, Gareth and Kate were given a due date of October 7, and Stefan and Katie were told their baby would arrive on October 10.
Different due dates
“Stefan and I weren’t trying for a baby but when Kate and Gareth sent us their news, I felt a little different and I’d missed a period,” explains Katie, 27. “We couldn’t believe it when we found out we were both expecting!
“Despite our different due dates, I was convinced we’d have our babies on the same day.”
Kate, 35, and Katie swapped pregnancy stories for the next nine months while Gareth and Stefan, both 34, joked about the 150,000 to one odds of their babies arriving on the same day.
On the morning of October 12, Gareth was at work as a delivery driver when Kate called him and said she was in labour – five days after her due date.
She messaged Katie to let her know, and Katie told her she too had spent the last few hours plagued by labour pains.
However, during the afternoon, Kate’s contractions appeared to stop. So did Katie’s.
“We were both feeling a bit deflated,” says Kate, “but that night my contractions started again and Harvey arrived at 12.15am on October 13.”
Gareth immediately called Stefan but couldn’t get through – Stefan was busy welcoming his own newborn, Imogen, who arrived at 11.45pm on the 13th (UK time). “If Harvey had been born 15 minutes earlier and Imogen 15 minutes later, they wouldn’t share the same birthday,” says Stefan. The families were recently united in the UK, allowing the new additions to get acquainted with each other.
“Everyone keeps looking at Imogen and Harvey, smiling at how bizarre it is,” laughs Gareth.
‘Everyone looks at Imogen and Harvey, smiling at how bizarre it is’