Pregnancy Signs & Symptoms, Week by Week Pregnancy Guide

It is interesting to know about multiple births that their number increased dramatically over the past few years. This means that you have higher chances of having twins than the chances your mother had. This is why you should gather some information regarding this matter.

Causes of the birth of multiples

One of the causes of having twins is that this is something hereditary. This means that if you have twins in the family on your mother’s side, you have high chances of having twins too. Race also has a word to say in the matter. Women of African American descent have higher chances of having multiples than any other women.

The prior pregnancies could also have something to do with the twin births. If you had previous pregnancies, especially if you had twins before, you have high chances of giving birth to twins again. In the same time your age is also a contributing factor because older women have higher chances of having twins.

Infertility treatment

If you receive treatment of this kind you will have to think about multiple births. This happens because the fertility drugs make the ovaries release several eggs at once. On the other hand during ART there are several embryos transferred into the uterus so the chances of having twins increase.

Types of multiples

When thinking about the birth of twins you could have identical twins. This occurs if the fertilized egg divides into two separate embryos. In this case you will have two identical babies. The children will have the same DNA and they will also have similar physical characteristics and the same sex, hair color and blood type.

Fraternal twins

In case you are thinking about multiple births, you should know that you might have fraternal twins. In this case there are two eggs fertilized by two different sperm but the kids will be no more than siblings. They aren’t necessarily of the same sex. Such situations are the most common.

‘Supertwins’

This is the term used for triplets or higher order multiple childbirths. The babies can be fraternal identical, or even a combination of these possibilities. It is quite rare to have higher order births. The chance of having triplets is one in 7,000-8,000 births.

Risks of the multiple births

The most common risk in this case is premature birth. Normally a single pregnancy lasts for 40 weeks, but in the majority of the cases the women who have twins will have a pregnancy of 35-37 weeks. About 50% of twins are born before term. Having higher order multiples increases the risks of premature birth.

If the childbirth of the twins is premature, the babies can be affected by different kinds of health problems. Since these babies are different from those born at term, after birth they are placed into a NICU. The chances of having serious problems decrease according to the prematurity degree.

As you can see there is a lot to know about multiple births and there is a lot to prepare for.