Mom Welcomes Twin Babies Early and Gets Her Ph.D. — and After She Got a Special Graduation Ceremony, Her Kids Did Too

Sarah Tov welcomed her children last month

Virginia Mason Franciscan Health Married couple Sarah Tov and iea tov holding their twin babies

• Couple Sarah Tov and iea tov were originally expecting their twin babies to arrive in June – about a month after Sarah completed her Ph.D. studies
• Sarah and the babies were honored with their respective graduation ceremonies at Seattle’s Virginia Mason Franciscan Health Birth Center
• “I also often joke that I had three brains working on my dissertation, so they rightfully should be recognized as part of my doctoral studies," Sarah tells PEOPLE about the ceremony for the babies

A woman who gave birth to twins and then got her Ph.D. is feeling on top of the world!

Last month, Sarah Tov, 37, was a pregnant University of Washington student wrapping up her seven-year work toward her degree in special education and disability studies. She then experienced health complications and was admitted to Seattle’s Virginia Mason Franciscan Health Birth Center, and a few days later she gave birth to identical twin babies, who then spent four weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

Today, Sarah and her partner iea tov (who uses the "zem" and "zey" pronouns and spells zeir name in lowercase) are back in their Seattle home with their babies after they were recently discharged.

“They're doing great,” Sarah tells PEOPLE about the newborns. "They're gaining weight, they're starting to open their eyes more. They're doing really well considering everything that they've been through.”

Married since 2021, Sarah and iea, also 37, initially expected the twin babies — who were conceived through in vitro fertilization (IVF) —  to arrive in June, about a month after Sarah would've completed her studies.

”[It] was super chill for a twin pregnancy until the end of week 32,” iea recalls. "And then it wasn't chill after that.”

On May 6, Sarah experienced high blood pressure and went to Virginia Mason, “They were just keeping a close watch on us,” she says. "The coordinated care at Virginia Mason was really amazing. They were in communication with each other across the board, and also made sure to give us all of the information that we needed to make informed decisions.”

The following afternoon, on May 7, Sarah and iea returned home from the hospital, and Sarah changed her clothes and took a nap. She then defended her dissertation — which she had originally planned to do in person — in front of a committee via Zoom later that same day.

On May 10, Sarah was readmitted to Virginia Mason, where the couple’s twin babies were born prematurely via C-section that afternoon. What made the experience unique for Sarah and iea was that Virginia Mason had postpartum rooms, allowing parents to stay overnight with their NICU babies. Outside of periodic trips to their home to check on their dog and perform errands, Sarah and iea were with their children every night at the facility.

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“Once the babies were stabilized and off oxygen, they were moved into our room on monitors,” says iea. "And then, when Sarah was discharged, she was discharged to the room, and we lived in that room for four weeks. Sarah sleeping on the hospital bed and me on the couch."

Virginia Mason Franciscan Health Sarah Tov and iea tov's twin babies

Sarah and iea praised Dr. Leizl Sapico, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Virginia Mason, who cared for the twins, as well as the facility's staff.

"We wanted to make sure we had the priority for experience and support for pregnancy with multiples," Sarah says, "and then also support for LGBTQ+ families. We know a variety of families who have not had positive experiences at birthing centers and hospitals. And so that kind of care was really important to us. It was phenomenal, and the team was super phenomenal."

Virginia Mason Franciscan Health iea tov and Sarah Tov with their children surrounded by Virginia Mason staff

“Because of [Virginia Mason’s] NICU model, we felt a stronger bond with our babies, built close relationships to the staff, and had a much easier time transitioning home,” iea says. “Additionally, Sarah was able to heal quicker because we didn’t have to toggle between home and the NICU, and it eased a significant portion of the stress and trauma associated with a complicated birth and NICU stay.”

In a statement shared with PEOPLE, Sapico said: “We want patients to know that our birth center is a safe place to have their baby, and that they will have a team of professionals who will listen, be their advocates and include patients in the decision-making process. We also want to create an atmosphere where staff would want to come and work, and we have that here.”

Sarah’s University of Washington’s College of Education graduation ceremony was scheduled for June 4. However, because the twin babies were still in the NICU the week of commencement, Sarah opted to have her advisor, an associate professor from the university, drop by Virginia Mason and congratulate her instead.

Virginia Mason Franciscan Health (L-R) iea tov and Sarah Tov with their twin babies

Still, iea had a surprise in store for Sarah. “It felt weird to let seven years of super hard work and kind of unexpected twists and turns to go by with acknowledging it," iea says. "So I wanted to do something. I knew that [the facility staff] would be good people to go to be like, 'Hey, let's actually make this more of a thing,' instead of just her advisor coming to bestow the hood onto Sarah.”

Together. iea and Virginia Mason's staff coordinated a surprise graduation ceremony for Sarah at the facility. One nurse made confetti using a hole punch, while another made Sarah a poster. Sapico also brought a cake.

“They made a room for us,” iea says. "And so we're going to walk to this other room, just to get out of our [postpartum] room that we've been in for almost three weeks. We walked around and Sarah was like, 'Wait, where are we going?' We kept walking, and then she saw everybody."

Virginia Mason Franciscan Health iea tov and Sarah Tov's twin babies

"It was really fun to be able to make that moment as special as we could with a team of nurses who just love and support us," iea adds. "One of the nurses had made a card that was footprint signed by the babies celebrating those achievements. So it was just a really beautiful moment to be able to have all together.”

Sarah, whose story was earlier reported by Good Morning America, wasn’t the only member of the Tov family to be honored with a special graduation ceremony. When it came for the babies to be discharged from Virginia Mason on June 7, the facility's staff celebrated the children, who were dressed in cute graduation gowns, with their own commencement.

Virginia Mason Franciscan Health Sarah Tov with her twin children

“We knew that they were going to be born around my graduation time, so we had gotten them little graduation garb, which they wore at my little doctoral graduation ceremony," says Sarah. "And then they also got to wear those cute robes for their nursery graduation. I also often joke that I had three brains working on my dissertation, so they rightfully should be recognized as part of my doctoral studies."

Sarah says the couple’s experience at Virginia Mason, especially their interactions with the staff, prepared them when they finally came home with their babies.

“We had routines down already," says Sarah. "It was the first time that iea and I had been able to have it just be us and the babies. That was a really important moment to just be together ... and to not have monitors beeping at us all day, and for the babies to be cordless, to be able to carry them from room to room for them to be next to each other.”

“The [Virginia Mason] staff really centered us as the babies' experts,” adds iea. “If we said these things were happening, then they would hear it and then look at it. And so it was like a holistic partnership in terms of the care that not just Sarah got, but also the babies got throughout their stay.”

Read the original article on People.