US Woman Gives Birth To Identical Twins 3 Days Apart, Doctors Say "Very Uncommon": Report

In a rare occurrence, a woman gave birth to rare identical twin daughters three days apart.

Carmen Martinez, who is now a mother of three, gave birth to Gabriella (Gabby) Grace Hernandez on March 7 and Isabella Rose Hernandez on March 10 at the Hendrick Health facility in Abilene, Texas, a city in Taylor County, according to a report in Fox News.

"Gabby was the first one born at 24 weeks and four days, and Bella was born at exactly 25 weeks," Ms Martinez was quoted as saying by the outlet.

A week before the babies were delivered, Ms Martinez began to show signs of early labour. She was advised to postpone the delivery of her second child for a few days in order to give them more time to develop and to improve her chances of survival.

"My doctors checked everything, and they were still there fine. There wasn't any kind of distress or anything. But they had their own separate placenta and their own separate sac, and it was just for Baby A that it ruptured and not Baby B," Ms Martinez further said.

She continued in labour without pain medication, closely observed, and was given magnesium, which may help to slow or stop labour contractions, the Fox News report said. "I held Gabby in for a week before I delivered her naturally," Ms Martinez said.

The turning of events shocked Ms Martinez and her family. "We didn't call anybody immediately because we didn't know what was going to happen," she said.

"When we finally called our immediate family and sent a picture of Gabby, everybody was scared because all they saw was a picture of one baby - and they didn't know what to ask," Ms Martinez added.

When her family came to know that the second child's delivery is still in progress, they were afraid while Ms Martinez was able to felt the baby's movement while resting on hospital's bed.

"Bella was having her own party," she recalled. "It's kind of like she had the whole belly to herself, and she was having a good time."

"I've only seen this one other time in my career. It's very uncommon," Dr James L Tadvick, an OB-GYN at Hendrick Health, who helped delivering the babies told Fox News.