Facebook video of preemie twins holding hands goes viral

The family of premature newborn twins in Australia captured a heart-tugging moment on video, and it's gone viral around the world.

New mom Anthea Jackson-Rushford posted a short video on Facebook showing the twins, Kristiana and Kristian, holding each others' tiny hands as their father cradles them against his chest.

"He actually holds her hand!" says a voice off camera. "How is that possible?"

A few days later, the proud mom posted a follow-up: "2.3million views for my lil Angels!!! They're famous and so is their daddy lol!!"

And its popularity kept growing -- as of January 20, the video had racked up 8.4 million views and counting.

The babies were born January 4 at 28 weeks, weighing in at "under a kilo," or 2.2 pounds, each, their mother said. Recent research shows survival rates for babies born that young have been improving in recent years. Skin-to-skin cuddling like their father was doing in the video -- known as "kangaroo care" -- has been shown to help boost preemies' health and wellbeing.

The video that captured so many hearts wasn't just a one-time thing. The twins can be seen holding hands in picture after picture posted on Jackson-Rushford's Facebook page. "As you can clearly see, they can't stop holding hands!!" she wrote.

In:
• Australia