Indian twins born six weeks apart doing well

Twins born in eastern India almost six weeks apart and of the opposite sex are doing well despite low birth weights, doctors said.

Twenty-five-year-old Babina Patra gave birth to the babies at a hospital in Phulbani in the poverty-hit coastal state of Orissa.

The first, a boy, who weighed 1.3 kilograms (three pounds) at the time of delivery, was born on April 27. The second, a girl weighing two kilograms (4.4 pounds),was born on June 7.

The mother had developed a rare twin pregnancy, said gynaecologist S.K. Mohanty, in which the babies developed from two separate eggs that had become implanted in the womb.

Both babies were healthy and progressing normally, the doctors said.

"We are happy with the twins. They are doing well," said the babies' father Patra Dhabaleswar.