Two sisters from Sheffield have stunned their family — and even hospital staff — after welcoming their baby daughters just minutes apart, despite their due dates being nearly a week apart.
Jo-Anne Hurt, 22, and her older sister Rebecca Hurt, 25, discovered they were both pregnant on the very same day last December. While their expected delivery dates were six days apart, fate had other plans. Against odds estimated at 2,000 to one, the sisters went into labour on the same evening and gave birth only 13 minutes apart.
Both women welcomed baby girls — Jo-Anne gave birth to Isabelle, while Rebecca welcomed Phoebe. The sisters delivered on the same maternity ward, allowing their mother, Pauline, 52, to move between rooms and share the emotional moment by cutting both umbilical cords.
Jo-Anne, who works at a call centre, said the experience still feels unreal. She explained that it was exactly a year earlier when the sisters first learned they were expecting, and now they had given birth on the same day too.
“We’ve always done everything side by side,” she said. “So I suppose it makes sense our pregnancies followed the same path.”
The double pregnancy reveal came in an unforgettable way. Last Christmas, Rebecca asked Jo-Anne to meet her and confided that she was expecting a baby. After promising secrecy, Jo-Anne shocked her sister by admitting she was pregnant too.
They quickly realised their due dates were less than a week apart, but never imagined their daughters would arrive within minutes of each other.
“Even the doctors couldn’t believe it,” Jo-Anne said. “We just laugh about it now. It’s something we’ll never forget.”
After sharing the news with their parents, the sisters decided to keep the surprise going by waiting until Christmas Day to tell the rest of the family. During Christmas dinner, they raised a toast and revealed their pregnancies, leaving relatives completely speechless.
“Everyone was stunned,” Jo-Anne recalled. “Our nan needed weeks to fully believe it.”
Throughout their pregnancies, the sisters leaned heavily on one another, sharing every ache, appointment and milestone. When both attended their 20-week scans in March, they received yet another surprise — they were both expecting girls.
“It felt like too much of a coincidence,” Jo-Anne said. “We knew then our daughters would grow up just as close as we are.”
The months that followed were filled with shared excitement, from shopping for baby clothes together to comparing baby bumps and feeling their babies kick at the same time.
Rebecca, who is a full-time mum, already has a five-year-old daughter, Charlie, whom she raises with her partner, Angelo Dearman, 21. Jo-Anne and her partner, Lewis Hague, 23, have an 18-month-old son, Oliver.
On August 17, Rebecca went into labour first. At 9:03pm, Phoebe was born weighing 5lb 15oz. Just 13 minutes later, at 9:16pm, Jo-Anne welcomed Isabelle, who weighed 6lb 13oz.
“I was actually five days overdue when Rebecca went into labour,” Jo-Anne explained. “A few hours later my contractions started too, so the hospital placed me just a short distance from her.”
The emotional impact was felt across the entire family. Their parents became grandparents twice in one evening, their partners suddenly became uncles, and their children gained two new cousins at once.
“It’s not something you could ever plan,” Jo-Anne said. “Even if we tried, we couldn’t have timed it better. Sharing this journey with my sister has been incredibly special.”
Rebecca echoed the sentiment, describing her sister as more than just family.
“We’ve always been inseparable,” she said. “She’s my sister and my best friend, and I know our girls are going to grow up the same way.”
As the family looks ahead, they are already preparing for a Christmas that promises twice the noise, twice the chaos — and twice the joy.
