Nurses discover unique similarity with twins they delivered

Meet Emma and Julia and … Emma and Julia!

Nurses discover unique similarity with twins they delivered
HCA Healthcare’s Rose Medical Center
October 20, 2022, 4:10 AM

When Lauren and Chris Meehan were getting ready to meet their twin daughters earlier this month, they were in for a pleasant surprise ahead of their babies' arrival at HCA Healthcare's Rose Medical Center in Denver.

"We were in the [operating room] with two teams of doctors and two teams of nurses," Lauren Meehan recalled to "Good Morning America." "The nurses had asked in the room if we had picked out names yet and we stopped and we were like, 'Yep, we liked Emma and Julia.'"

"The room got kind of quiet," Meehan continued. "They all looked around and everyone started to giggle because we found out that the two nurses they were going to take care of the babies when they did come were both Emma and Julia."

It isn't every day that postpartum nurses Emma Anderson and Julia Van Marter, who've been at Rose Medical Center, nicknamed Denver's "baby hospital," for four years and three years respectively, get to care for babies who share their names.

Nurses Emma Anderson and Julia Van Marter hold twins Emma and Julia Meehan. The nurses cared for the twins at HCA Healthcare's Rose Medical Center in Denver.
HCA Healthcare’s Rose Medical Center

"We were just so excited. We couldn't believe it, just thrilled," Anderson told "GMA."

"I had never delivered a baby with my name before so I was pretty excited. But I mean, I feel like it's pretty rare to have that coincidence in general and especially with twins and two nurses. That just doesn't happen around here," Van Marter added.

Chris and Lauren Meehan pose with nurses Emma Anderson and Julia Van Marter who are holding their twin daughters Emma and Julia.
HCA Healthcare’s Rose Medical Center
Twins Emma and Julia wore knitted pumpkin hats on their way home from the hospital.
Courtesy The Meehan Family

According to the Social Security Administration, which releases the top baby names in the country each year, Emma was the No. 2 name for baby girls in 2021 while Julia was less popular, coming in at No. 114 last year.

The Meehans and the hospital staff would end up meeting baby Emma first on Oct. 5, followed shortly after by her twin, Julia. The 2-week-old fraternal twins are now home with their parents and their older brother in Denver.

Lauren and Chris Meehan are also parents to a two-year-old son.
Courtesy The Meehan Family

"It was just a nice moment in the craziness that was about to happen to kind of just stop and appreciate that little moment of joy," Meehan, who also happens to be a nurse at Rose Medical Center's cardiovascular service department, said. "We were in the right spot at the right time."

"It was Rose nurses taking care of [a] Rose nurse because I know they're a good group. So I felt comfortable and trusted them to take care of me," the mom of three continued, adding that she had all her kids at Rose and her experiences had been "phenomenal."