A couple got the shock of their lives when an ultrasound scan revealed they were expecting twins, but it was only once they saw the newborns next to each other that they discovered another major surprise. In late 2024, Rebecca Michels and her husband were thrilled to learn that they were expanding their family once more. Michels, 37, who lives in Sydney, Australia, loved the idea of giving her son Braxton, 10, a younger brother or sister.
It was a tough pregnancy, however, as Michels told Newsweek that she suffered from hyperemesis gravidarum and experienced significant pelvic pain. When the couple arrived at the hospital for their first ultrasound scan, they were ready and eager to see their bundle of joy on the monitor. But nothing could have prepared them for what the sonographer said next.
My husband put his head in his hands, and I just went silent. We were thinking about how we’d manage everything, including time off work. There was a lot to get our heads around, but once that initial shock settled, it became really exciting.” As the babies were in separate sacs and had separate placentas, it was presumed they were fraternal twins.
Fraternal twins develop when two separate eggs are fertilized and, genetically, are no more alike than other siblings. However, having separate sacs and placentas does not necessarily mean twins are fraternal. Dichorionic diamniotic (DCDA) twins each have their own placenta and amniotic sac.
While all non-identical twins are DCDA, some identical twins can be DCDA too. In fact, during appointments, sonographers often described the twins as “simply siblings sharing a home.” Michels said: “Hearing ‘separate sacs, separate placentas’ repeatedly made it easy to assume they were simply two separate babies who happened to be growing together. We didn’t find out their sexes during pregnancy, but we’d convinced ourselves we were probably having a boy and a girl.” On May 28, 2025, the twins, named Capri and Kenzie, were born just 30 seconds apart.
Much to Michels’s astonishment, she welcomed two baby girls, which was “a big surprise.” Kenzie was born inside her amniotic sac and needed help breathing, so she was taken straight to a ward for specialized care. She remained there for five days as she was also having trouble maintaining her blood sugar levels. As Kenzie needed extra care, it was not possible to see the twins side by side very often during the first few days.
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