New parents Kate Richards and Dylan Clarke know good things come in small packages.
On March 14, during Multiple Birth Awareness Week, Ms Richards gave birth to their twin girls Florence and Zara at Werribee Mercy Hospital.
The girls decided they were ready to enter the world early, and were born at just 32 weeks.
Ms Richards said the twins were “tiny” when they were born – Zara weighed 1780 grams and Florence two kilograms – but after four weeks of attention from the staff at Mercy Hospital’s special care nursery, the tiny bundles have now put on weight.
The girls were born healthy, but Florence spent about a week connected to a CPAP machine to help her breathe.
Mr Clarke and Ms Richards described the twins as a “surprise pregnancy”.
“We bought a block of land on a Monday and on the Wednesday, we found out we were having twins,” Mr Clarke said.
Both he and Ms Richards have twins in their extended families, including twin aunts on Ms Richards’ side.
Ms Richards said she and Mr Clarke both felt lucky to have “very supportive families” to help them with the twins.
The girls have been named Florence Margaret and Zara Robyn, their second names are after their maternal and paternal grandmothers.
Ms Richards said the twins were already developing their own personalities.
“Zara’s a bit more alert, Florence is really placid,” she said.
Florence and Zara are the 18th set of twins to be born at Werribee Mercy Hospital during the 2017-18 financial year.
