Double the Joy! Twin sisters give birth to baby boys on the same day at Jackson Hospital

A local family has double the reason to celebrate after twin sisters gave birth to baby boys just hours apart at Jackson Hospital in Montgomery.

Dominque and Arminque Johnson, 25-year-old twins who were born one minute apart, delivered their sons Dec. 5 at Jackson Hospital’s Family Birth Center.

The sisters are close and even joked as children about having babies at the same time.

“I remember when we were little, we would say we’re gonna have babies together at the same time, but I didn’t think it would actually happen,” Dominque said.

One pregnancy was planned and the other was not, but both sisters learned they were expecting on the same day.

“She didn’t wanna take a pregnancy test by herself, so she said, ‘Can you take one with me?’ and mine came back positive,” Dominique said. “I was like, ‘Oh, well, I’m pregnant too.’”

Throughout their pregnancies, the sisters did nearly everything side by side — from doctor’s appointments to baby showers.

“Us just doing everything together — doctor’s appointments, baby showers, labor and delivery — all of that,” Arminque Johnson said. “I just enjoyed it.”

Their due dates were about two weeks apart, but plans changed when Arminque was induced. Dominque came to visit her sister at the hospital and soon realized she was having contractions herself.

“She came in the room walking like she was hurting,” Arminque said. “I was like, ‘You need to get checked out.’ She didn’t want to, but I told the nurse she was having contractions, and they checked her. Then the nurse came back and said, ‘Your sister’s staying too.’”

Dominque, who was not due until Dec. 18, went into labor shortly afterward.

“Everybody was saying they’re gonna come on the same day, but I didn’t think so,” she said. “She was getting induced, so I thought she’d go faster than me — but my water broke before hers.”

The sisters labored in rooms down the hall from each other while their mother, Phalinda Rudolph, rushed between them.

“We were FaceTiming each other back and forth,” Dominique said. “We were both having contractions. We were both crying. My mom was running from room to room praying over her, then praying over me.”

“I love my mama,” Arminque added. “She was going from room to room, holding my hair, rubbing my back and praying for me.”

Merideth Maggard, who assisted Arminque with her delivery, said the sisters even watched each other labor over FaceTime.

“We actually watched Dominque deliver,” Maggard said. “Arminque was watching and saying, ‘Oh, I just want it to be me.’”

Tynsley Morris, the nurse helping Dominque, joked that the staff treated the births like a friendly competition.

“We were racing,” Morris said. “It was a competition of who could get who delivered first, and I won.”

“She won,” Maggard added, laughing.

Dominque delivered her son, Jabari, four hours and two minutes before Arminque gave birth to Jasai.

“They act like they’re twins,” Dominque said. “They wake up at the same time, cry at the same time and feed at the same time.”

“I hope they grow up to be very close like me and my sister. We’re gonna make sure that they are and that they look at each other as brothers and cousins,” Arminque said.

When the family returned to Jackson Hospital for a visit, the nurses who helped deliver the boys greeted them with hugs and gifts.

“It’s nice when they come back,” Maggard said. “ We are labor and delivery nurses. We don’t get to hold the babies. We catch the babies and we love on them for the first few seconds,  and then we go on to help the next mama.”

“Labor is already special,” Morris said. “You’re bringing babies into the world, and to be able to be a part of that and bring two special little boys (into the world) when their families are so close – because obviously they’re moms are twin sisters – is just awesome.”

According to statistical estimates, the odds of twin sisters giving birth to babies of the same sex on the same day are about 1 in 25,000.