Meet Shiratori Akari and Shiratori Hikari! The twin sisters from America are in their first year middle school, and for some reason, they are born *five days apart*.
Whaaaaaat?!
If you didn't know: The official birthdays for Akari and Hikari are March 28 and April 2 respectively. Your initial reaction would probably be: 'Aren't twins supposed to share the same birthday??' Turns out, not really!
(Gonna start discussing a little biology here so you have been warned, LOL)
A twin, scientifcally speaking, are two children born from the same pregnancy. They can either be identical twins (where one fertilized egg splits into two) or fraternal twins (where two eggs get fertilized at the same time). Because they are created at the same time, it's only natural they would be born at the same time too.
But let's talk about premature labour.
Premature labour is when a baby decides to pop out earlier than it's supposed to. There isn't really a fixed timing for how early though - it can be days, it can be weeks. Who know?
So anyway, disregarding the fact that this is a television show and Rina and Mio aren't actually twins in real life, why do Akari and Hikari have different birthdays?
As it turns out, premature labour can happen with twins too. It's uncommon, but not impossible! In that scenario, the doctors usually allow one of the babies out of the womb, while the second baby remains inside until the actual maturity day, hence the reason for the gaps between birthdays!
For those who are curious, there is a Guinness World Record for "Longest gap between the birth of twins". It's 84 days. I'm not joking.
Hope you guys enjoyed this little discussion about Akari and Hikari's birthdays.
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