ATLANTA -- The father of conjoined twin boys born Thursday morning in Atlanta took to Facebook on Friday to thank supporters and ask for their prayers as his wife and children recuperate.
"Robin's doing good, she was up and moving around last night," Michael Hamby said in his video update posted Friday morning. "The boys are doing ok, they're sleepy. They do have them on some assisted air, they do have them incubated, but they've got good color."
Michael and Robin Hamby's twins -- Asa and Eli -- were born by Caesarean section at Northside Hospital in Atlanta at 7:32 a.m. Thursday. Attached at the torso, arms and legs, the two cannot be separated because they share a heart and circulatory system.
The Hambys, who are from from Ladonia, Ala., arrived in Atlanta on Wednesday night. After the birth Thursday, the twins were transferred to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Egleston.
Michael Hamby has been keeping family, friends and the media updated through their Facebook page.
"Everything is just moving along as fast as it can move along. Given ... what's going on with their little bodies, anything still can happen," Michael Hamby said in the video.
The likelihood of conjoined twins is a rare event, happening just once every 200,000 live births, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center. But their likelihood of survival is grim: About 40 to 60 percent are stillborn, and about 35 percent live only one day.
Male conjoined twins are even rarer. According to the University of Maryland, about 70 percent of conjoined twins are girls. And Emory University professor and physician Darria Glilespie, who is not the twins' doctor, says the mortality rate is high among twins who share a heart.
Michael Hamby said he and his wife appreciated all the messages wishing the family well and promised more updates. But right now, the family just needs privacy.
"We just need a little break from all of the world so we can put our world into our boys," he said.
"Y'all just pray for us."
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