Make sure to take care of yourself and learn the warning signs of problems. If you are having twins, talk to your doctor and friends about what you can do to take care of them and about the new additions in your life. Make a Payment Schedule an Appointment. Patient Education. Having Twins The news that you are having twins can be happy, exciting, wonderful, and nerve-wracking all at once.
There are two different types of twins that can form: Fraternal Twins: This type of twin set is the most common. This occurs when two different eggs are both fertilized by two different sperm and implant themselves into the uterine wall at the same time.
Fraternal twins will both have a different amniotic sac and placenta. Since these eggs were fertilized by two different sperm, it is very unlikely that the children will end up looking the same. Fraternal twins can be both of the same sex, or one male one female.
Identical Twins: Identical twins are extremely rare. They form when the single fertilized egg splits in early pregnancy and develops into two fetuses. The twins may share the same placenta, but usually have separate amniotic sacs.
Since identical twins come from the same sperm and egg, they will look exactly alike. They are always the same sex, have the same physical features and the same blood type. Other things you may need to do include adjusting: Nutrition: It is important to understand that you will inevitably gain more weight if you are pregnant with twins than just one baby. If you are of average weight, plan on eating healthy foods that amount to about 2, calories a day.
You should expect to gain around one pound per week, and a little over a pound during the later months, with an all-around weight gain of pounds. If you are overweight, you may need to eat less to gain less.
If you are underweight, you may need to eat more to gain more. Vitamins: Your doctor may advise you in taking special vitamin supplements that will help you have a healthier pregnancy. Twins - identical and fraternal. Actions for this page Listen Print. On this page. Multiple births are more common than they were in the past, due to the advancing average age of mothers and the associated rise in assisted reproductive techniques, in particular the use of fertility drugs.
Twins account for over 90 per cent of multiple births. There are two types of twins — identical monozygotic and fraternal dizygotic. To form identical twins, one fertilised egg ovum splits and develops two babies with exactly the same genetic information.
This differs from fraternal twins, where two eggs ova are fertilised by two sperm and produce two genetically unique children, who are no more alike than individual siblings born at different times.
Twins are more or less equally likely to be female or male. Factors that increase the odds of having twins Some women are more likely than others to give birth to twins. The factors that increase the odds include: Advancing age of the mother — women in their 30s and 40s have higher levels of the sex hormone oestrogen than younger women, which means that their ovaries are stimulated to produce more than one egg at a time.
Number of previous pregnancies — the greater the number of pregnancies a woman has already had, the higher her odds of conceiving twins. Heredity — a woman is more likely to conceive fraternal twins if she is a fraternal twin, has already had fraternal twins, or has siblings who are fraternal twins.
Race — Black African women have the highest incidence of twins, while Asian women have the lowest. Assisted reproductive techniques — many procedures rely on stimulating the ovaries with fertility drugs to produce eggs and, often, several eggs are released per ovulation.
Fertilisation Hormones secreted by the ovaries, and a small gland in the brain called the pituitary, control the menstrual cycle. The average cycle is around 28 days. Often, same-sex fraternal twins look different — for example, they might have different hair or eye colour. Occasionally they look quite similar.
Very rarely, fraternal twins share a placenta. These types of twins are called chimaeric twins. Sometimes a fertilised egg splits within a few days of conception to produce genetically identical twins. Because these twins come from one zygote, they are also known as monozygotic. Identical twins are the same sex. About one-third of identical twins split soon after fertilisation and form completely separate twins.
Like fraternal twins, these twins have separate placentas. The other two-thirds split after they attach to the wall of the womb. As a result, they share a placenta. The technical name for this is monochorionic. In a very small number of identical twins, splitting might happen even later. In this case, both twins share an inner sac , called the amnion, in addition to sharing a placenta.
Twins are affected by your health and habits during pregnancy. Fraternal twins share increased or decreased health risks due to sharing the pregnancy environment.
While it's not possible to completely eliminate the risks that come with having fraternal twins, you can take some healthy steps to reduce those risks, including:. Your fraternal twins will share many things throughout their lives after starting out in the womb together. Enjoy their similarities and differences as they grow.
With these facts, you'll be able to tell them how they truly are unique. Get diet and wellness tips to help your kids stay healthy and happy. Columbia University Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Dichorionic twins. Flais SV. The difference between identical and fraternal twins. American Academy of Pediatrics. Updated November 7, Dizygotic twinning. Hum Reprod Update. Body composition, smoking, and spontaneous dizygotic twinning.
Fertil Steril. Adashi EY, Gutman R. Delayed childbearing as a growing, previously unrecognized contributor to the national plural birth excess. Obstet Gynecol. Smits J, Monden C. Twinning across the developing world. Multiple pregnancy and birth: Twins, triplets and high-order multiples. Trakia J Sci. Three decades of twin births in the United States, — Trends and correlates of monozygotic twinning after single embryo transfer. Unpredicted ovulations and conceptions during early pregnancy: An explanatory mechanism of human superfetation.
Reprod Fertil Dev. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Multiple pregnancy. Updated January
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