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By Alyce Collins
Senior Reporter
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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.
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But nothing could have prepared them for what the sonographer said next.
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“We were in the ultrasound room when the sonographer told us there were two babies,” Michels said. “I’m not going to lie—the room was very quiet for the rest of the appointment. My husband put his head in his hands, and I just went silent.
“It’s a huge thing to take in—two babies at once, double the nappies and double the daycare costs. 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. However, four days after they were born, it became clear just how similar they looked. Nurses even suggested a DNA test, raising questions over the assumption that they were fraternal twins.
Michels knew she wanted to go ahead with the DNA test straight away. After so much uncertainty throughout the pregnancy, she did not want any more surprises.
“Seeing how alike they looked made us curious,” Michels said. “We also wanted them to know for themselves and felt that having clarity about whether they were identical could be useful for their medical history.”
The DNA test was done in July, and just three days later, the results came through.
Incredibly, the DNA test confirmed that Capri and Kenzie are identical twins with a 99.999999994 percent probability. According to the test results, it was also 16 billion times more likely that they were identical than fraternal.
Identical twins develop when a single fertilized egg splits into two embryos. Because they originate from the same fertilized egg, they share the same genetic material.
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It was a wonderful revelation for the family. The couple had believed they were having a boy and a girl throughout the pregnancy, but finding out they had identical twin girls was “a lovely ending to all the surprises.”
While Capri and Kenzie may look alike, they are developing their own personalities, and Michels is noticing many differences between them now.
Michels told Newsweek: “They’re quite different, but then they’ll do things at exactly the same time, which is funny to watch. Capri is our little deep thinker. She reminds me of myself—stubborn, determined and happy to sit and concentrate on building blocks or working something out. Kenzie is our little crazy lady. She loves running around laughing, tackling her big brother or racing through the house.”
Following the arrival of her twin girls, Michels has been documenting her motherhood journey on TikTok and Instagram. She feels fortunate to have been blessed with such beautiful surprises and loves watching the twins grow and develop alongside their big brother, who is “absolutely smitten” with them.
“We thought we were having our second child and ended up with our second and third,” Michels said. “They’ve each brought their own little personality into our family and made it feel complete. I wouldn’t change it for the world.”
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Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Charlotte Nisbet and Paul Donnelley.
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