Sean William, 10 pounds, 14 ounces, and Abigail Rose, 12 pounds, 3 ounces were born at Forsyth Medical Center's Sara Lee Center for Women's Health here. The twins, with a combined weight of 23 pounds, 1 ounce, may claim the title of the heaviest set of twins ever born in North Carolina.

Delivered by Cesarean section two minutes apart, the brother and sister were born to Joey and Erin Maynard and are both in excellent health. The scale-topping twins may also turn out to be the second heaviest set of twins born in the entire U.S. in the last century.

According to a statement from the Sara Lee Center for Women's Health, the heaviest set of twins were born in Arkansas in 1924, weighing in at a combined weight of 27 pounds, 12 ounces.

The twins will join their two-and-a-half-year-old brother at home in Winston-Salem.

"The babies measured about nine pounds each when we did an ultrasound two weeks ago, so we knew they were going to be big babies at delivery," said Dr. Jacquelyn Mims of Lyndhurst OB-GYN, the attending obstetrician, in the statement. "Because over the course of her pregnancy the mother took excellent care of herself, staying on a healthy diet and closely following our instructions we were fairly confident she could deliver without complications."