DOUBLE DELIGHT
TWO sisters are cele- brating after giving birth on the same day.
Olivia Brookes and Melanie Alker, who live eight doors along from each other on the same road in Ashton, both booked in for Caesarian sections on June 18.
Melanie, 33, said: “It sounds mad but our mum told me she’d had a dream that I’d get pregnant.
“Then she rang my sister up and said we’d get pregnant at the same time.
“Mum told her to take a pregnancy test and she was pregnant!”
Olivia, 21, explained: “Melanie was due on June 26 and I was due on June 24.
“My baby was breached and we tried to turn her but it didn’t work so I needed to have a C-section.
“They said to me I could choose either June 18 or June 19 for it.
“I knew my sister had booked in on the 18th and that’s my dad’s birthday too, so that’s the date I chose.
“It’s going to be a very busy date for our family.
“I was in Cyprus, where the baby’s dad lives, and went for a scan at 23 weeks.
“They told me it was a girl. When I came back to England I had another scan and was told that they weren’t sure, but they thought it was a boy.
“She pointed to what must have been the umbilical cord on the scan picture.
“I believed the English prediction and bought all boys clothes.
“Then, thinking we were both having boys, my mum chose the names for us.
“In English it’s Cain and Abel. Changed to Arabic names it’s Qabil and Habeel.”
When the set day arrived, Melanie was first into theatre.
She and her partner Kalid Rashid welcomed her fourth child into the world.
Bouncing baby boy Habeel Rashid arrived at 9.59am and weighed 7lb 15oz.
Then Olivia delivered a beautiful baby girl at 11.57am weighing 7lb 2oz.
Olivia and her partner Mustafa Albeik hadn’t been prepared for the arrival of a girl and so were still deciding upon a name for their first-born child over a week later.
Melanie said: “The similarities weren’t just the birth dates.
“We both had breached babies and both suffered with a bad throat infection while pregnant.
“We basically had the same symptoms all the way through pregnancy!
“There’s a bit of an age gap between Olivia and myself but we are and always have been close.
“I was really happy when I found out she’d chosen the same day as me for her caesarean.
“It’s lovely that they’ll share a birthday and it’s unusual.
“I think our children will be very close – I definitely hope so.”
