US twins delivered just minutes apart end up being born in two different years

Twins in Salinas, California were born 15 minutes apart but won’t share a birthday – or even the same birth year.

Aylin Yolanda Trujillo was delivered at Natividad medical center at exactly midnight on 1 January. She was the first baby born in Monterey county in 2022, as the US west coast ushered in a new year.

But her brother, Alfredo Antonio Trujillo, had arrived just before her, at 11.45pm on 31 December, as 2021 came to a close.

“It’s crazy to me that they are twins and have different birthdays,” said Aylin and Alfredo’s mother, Fatima Madrigal. “I was surprised and happy that she arrived at midnight.”

Aylin was born a healthy 5lb 14oz, while Antonio weighed in at 6lb 1oz. The twins, from Greenfield, California, have two older sisters and an older brother, who was said to be excited for another boy to join the family.

Photos showed both babies with their eyes closed, swaddled in matching striped blankets and wearing pink-striped beanies.

The chance of twins being born on different days, months and years is relatively low. While there were about 3.75m births in the US in 2019, only about 120,000 – or about 3% – were twins, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Twin deliveries that straddle the narrow window of time between the last seconds of December and first moments of January are even less common.

“This was definitely one of the most memorable deliveries of my career,” said Ana Abril Arias, a family doctor at Natividad medical group.

“It was an absolute pleasure to help these little ones arrive here safely in 2021 and 2022. What an amazing way to start the New Year!”