How will I know?
Many new parents wonder if they could be carrying more than one baby. The possibility of a multiple pregnancy might be something that crosses your mind, perhaps because twins run in the family, or maybe you would just really like to have two babies at once. A few parents ponder the prospect of twins with anxiety or dread! Whatever the case, this question is a fairly common one to ask.
The incidence of multiple pregnancies has nearly doubled in recent years. In Australia in 2003 there were 4,259 multiple pregnancies (1.7% of all births). This works out to be about 17 per 1000 births or about 1 in every 59 births. This is a substantial increase from about 9 per 1000 births (1 in 110 births) in 1987, despite the overall birth rate being fairly static over this time period. It is believed the rise in multiple births is attributed to:
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An increase in women delaying having babies until their late 30's. For women under 20 years of age the incidence of conceiving non-identical twins is about 3 per 1000 births (0.3 %). For women between 35 to 40 years, the incidence increases to about 14 per 1000 births (1.4%). However, after the age of 40 the incidence declines again. |
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The increased use of fertility treatments. Many women are prescribed medications such as Clomid (known as Clomiphene), to stimulate their ovaries to produce more than one egg each menstrual cycle. Multiple pregnancies are conceived in about 10 to 20% of cases and can involve triplets, quadruplets or even quintuplets or more. Parents using assisted conception such as IVF or ICSI can choose to have more than one embryo transferred into the woman's uterus. This increases her chances of conceiving, with both methods having a multiple pregnancy rate of about 22%. You can read more in fertility treatments. |
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The use of folic acid supplements. In recent years, women have been advised to take folic acid supplements pre-conceptually and during early pregnancy. This aims to prevent abnormalities in unborn babies. However, folic acid has been shown to slightly increase the chances of conceiving twins. It is estimated that for every 176 pregnancies, one extra woman supplementing with folic acid will conceive twins, when compared to the same number of women who did not take folic acid. You can read more here. |
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Conceiving soon after stopping the oral contraceptive pill. Women who take the pill for more than 6 months and then conceive the month after stopping this contraception, double their chances of conceiving twins! |