Identical twins give birth on same day, in same hospital

For the past 23 years, identical twin sisters Rebecca Lawrence and Christina Keefer have shared a birthday, and now their children will too.

Lawrence and Keefer, who are from Pennsylvania, gave birth to their first children on the same day, in the same hospital.

Lawrence delivered her daughter, whom she named Raylynn, at 12:07 a.m. on May 25 at WellSpan Gettysburg Hospital.

Just over 13 hours later, in a room next door, Keefer delivered her son, whom she named Xavian, at 1:17 p.m.

In addition to being born just hours apart on the same day, the cousins also shared nearly the exact same measurements as well.

Raylynn weighed 8 pounds, 3 ounces at birth, and was 20 inches long, while Xavian weighed 8 pounds, 12 ounces and was 20.5 inches long.

"It's definitely a rarity," Damara Jenkins, the midwife who cared for both Lawrence and Keefer at WellSpan Gettysburg Hospital, told "Good Morning America." "I've been doing this over 20 years and never experienced that before, so it was a lot of fun."

Lawrence and Keefer, who are each married and live about 15 minutes away from each other, told "GMA" that it was a happy coincidence when they became pregnant within weeks of each other.

"It was interesting to see the different experiences we were having, like she would have like morning sickness and everything like that, but I didn't have any," Lawrence said of their pregnancies. "And it was nice kind of getting to go through it with somebody else, and then if we had any issues, we could just talk about it."

When Lawrence went into the hospital on May 23, for a scheduled induction, Keefer came with her for support.

While at the hospital, Keefer said she began having contractions, and was admitted to the hospital herself the next day when her water broke.

"Having contractions while she was giving birth was so strange because it's like, as she's in pain, I'm in pain, so it was kind of like sympathy pains in a way," Keefer said. "I kept asking questions because I wanted to know personally how it feels, like what do I have to experience in the next few hours?"

The sisters said they were able to have hospital rooms right next to each other, so they and their family members were able to easily check on them both.

The babies were born far enough apart that Lawrence and Keefer were also able to each be with each other in the delivery room for the birth, as they had planned throughout their pregnancies.

The sisters and their babies were discharged from the hospital within one day of each other, just in time to celebrate their own birthday on May 29.

In addition to their own children now sharing a birthday just four days before their own, Keefer said their kids' cousin was also born on May 25.

"[Our] brother's youngest, his birthday is also on the 25th as well," Keefer said. "So it's going to be interesting having three birthday parties."