While most women tell harrowing stories of the hours spent in labor, none of them have likely come close to spending 87 days delivering twins. Maria Jones-Elliott has. Her twins, Amy and Katie, have set a new Guinness World Record for the longest interval between the births of twins.

The first of the twins, Amy, was born on June 1, 2012, four months premature. While Amy fought for her life in intensive care, Katie remained in Jones-Elliott's uterus for another three months. Though doctors induced labor the next day, hoping Katie would also be born, it was to no avail. For the following three months, Jones-Elliott decided to remain in the hospital until the birth of the second twin.

Amy was born twenty-four weeks into Jones-Elliott's pregnancy, which makes her nearly four months ahead of her September due date. As a result, her birth weight was 1 pound 3 ounces, and she was immediately rushed to urgent care. However, as the Mirror reports, the willful Katie remained in utero until Jones-Elliott's 36th week.

Often, issues involving twins relate to the miscarriage of one twin or twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome. Most doctors on the delivery team were taken aback by the situation they were facing; it was one feat to help premature born Amy survive to meet her sister, but quite another to hope that Katie would make it as well.

Most people have heard of gaps between the deliveries of twins. According to a study done by Rayburn et al, it's common for twins to be born up to two hours apart and sometimes even days apart.

But this was an extreme case.

"Most people haven't heard of this [situation]," said Dr. Eddie O'Donnell in an interview with the Belfast Telegraph. Dr. O'Donnell was part of Jones-Elliott's delivery team,

The current Guinness World Record for longest interval between the births of twins is held by Peggy Lynn of Pennsylvania whose twins were born 84 days apart in 1995. Similarly, Sandra Berveridge of West Lothian gave birth to twins 28 days apart by caesarian section in 2000. The Elliott's claim of 87 days still awaits approval by Guinness, says Damian Field, a Guinness World Records spokesman, and will break the current record if approved.

The adage "better late than never" certainly applies here, but eighty-seven days between births is simply remarkable.