Increase Your Chance of Having Twins

Many people are intrigued with twins. The interest in twins may simply because they are cute or just because it is amazing to witness the miracle of life times two. Birth itself is such an incredible miracle, but when two perfectly formed human beings emerge at once it is all the more exciting. This is more so in the case of identical twins. Some mothers who long for twins just like the idea of getting it over wit; two in one shot. Also if conception has been difficult or medically assisted it is cheaper and less stressful to have more than one baby at one time. Yes we know we love twins, but is there any way to increase the likely hood of having twins? Let’s look at statistics. The numbers of identical twins remain fairly constant across all populations, but there seems to be some contributing factors for having fraternal twins (dizygotic-two eggs being fertilized at the same time)

1) Ethnicity – Mothers of African descent have higher rates of having twins. Hispanic and Asian mothers have the lowest rate.

2) Age – Mothers over 30 have higher rates of twins and over 35, the rates of twinning increases again.

3) Maternal history- If the woman’s mother or grandmother had fraternal twins then her chances may be increased by inheriting the tendency to ovulate more than one egg at a time, hyper ovulation.

4) Size – Studies published by the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology show that bigger moms have increased chance of having fraternal twins. Mothers with BMI of over 30 or mothers in the top 25 percentile for height have increased chance of having twins.

5) Breastfeeding – Women who conceive while breastfeeding have increased tendency to have twins.

6) The Pill – Although the pill boasts rates of 99.9% effectiveness, for those that fall
into the .01% twins are often a result. It seems the increase in hormones can cause hyper ovulation (releasing more than one egg at ovulation time.)

7) Previous multiple birth – Mothers that have had twins before are more likely than the average population to have twins.

Diet- Eating yams, meat and dairy increase the rates of twins as well. Studies show that a particular Yoruba tribe has the highest rate of twinning in the world. The diet of the mothers includes cassava. Meat and dairy also increase a mother’s chance of having twins, maybe due to the hormones from the animal and hormones that are added to increase growth in animals cause twins.

9) Number of children – The likelihood of having twins increase as number of pregnancies increases. This just may be a numbers game.

10) Fertility treatments – Drugs that are used in fertility treatments may also lead to multiple pregnancies. As well IVF (in vitro fertilization) often results in more than one embryo being implanted. Even so they is an increase in monozygotic twins when IVF is done.

Article by:

Sahar Aleenuh is a Work at Home Mom with her own Cool Little Website www.officialdealfinder.com