Cousins Make Well-Timed Entrances

Two sisters became aunts and mothers simultaneously when they give birth to baby girls at the same time--the same minute--and just one room apart.

The women had different doctors and went into labor at different times, but both delivered at 8:35 p.m. Wednesday in the obstetrics wing of Santa Ana Hospital Medical Center.

“They’re practically twins,” hospital spokeswoman Kelly Quach said of the newborn cousins.

The nurse on duty scampered between rooms 5 and 6, giving the sisters updates on each other’s labor and playfully goading each to be the first to deliver, said nurse Sonia Ayala, who served as translator Thursday for the sisters and their mother.

Maradeli Nolasco Campos, 18, gave birth to Jasmine, who weighed 7 pounds, 9 ounces. Her sister, Estehela Nolasco, 20, gave birth to Sandra, who weighed 7 pounds.

Dr. Lodema Stephens, who delivered Estehela’s baby, said of the new mom: “She did a beautiful job. It’s hard to learn how to push when you’re in the ditches of delivery.”

Stephens said hospital staff members, who sent the sisters a large bouquet of lilies and daisies, have traded good-natured speculation about the coincidence.

“We were joking that they must have been at the same big party nine months ago,” she said, marveling at the statistical improbability of the dual births.

Actually, Estehela was due in late September and Maradeli was due in late October, but the contractions met somewhere in the middle.

“There has to be some sibling rivalry going on there,” Stephens said with a grin.

“I’ve seen some unusual births, like Siamese twins and triplets, but this is the first time I’ve had two sisters who delivered at the same minute.”

Sharing the same recovery room and wearing matching hot pink lipstick, the sisters rested under rose blankets in adjacent beds and gazed out the window Thursday between gamely answering questions about their daughters.

They said the serendipity of their daughters sharing a birthday and growing up together is exciting.

Swaddled in tiny rompers, the newborns drooled and dozed with eyes shut tight, their generous tufts of black hair slightly ruffled and their smooth skin still splotchy from the ordeal of birth.

The sisters said they were grateful that their mother, Reyna Garcia, was with them at the hospital, holding their babies and making them laugh.

Garcia balanced herself on the foot of Estehela’s bed, taking turns holding her granddaughters, cooing and speaking softly to them in Spanish.

A hospital band encircling her wrist, Estehela held a bottle of formula to her baby’s mouth with one hand, adjusting her gold Lady of Guadalupe necklace over her hospital gown.

The sisters, who are two of seven siblings, said they plan to glean lots of advice from their mom.

Garcia said her daughters are lucky to have girls; boys, she declared, are harder to raise.