Is it hard to be pregnant with twins?
Twins are usually born before the usual 40-week due date. For the mother, carrying twins can be more difficult than carrying a single baby. And her risks are higher for pregnancy problems. That's why keeping up with prenatal checks and tests is especially important.
The hardest thing about having twins is...
“Managing the movement of two babies. Carrying them both up and down the stairs, getting them into the car, etc.” —Simeon R. “Often having to make one baby wait!” —Catharine D. “Being outnumbered—the logistics of two on one is definitely the hardest.
Fertility treatment
Some fertility drugs work by stimulating a woman's ovaries, which can sometimes cause them to release more than one egg. If sperm fertilizes both of these eggs, this can result in twins. In vitro fertilization (IVF) can also increase the chance of conceiving twins.
Anemia is more than twice as common in multiple pregnancies as in a single birth. Multiple birth babies have about twice the risk of congenital (present at birth) abnormalities including neural tube defects (such as spina bifida), gastrointestinal, and heart abnormalities.
Factors that increase the chance of twins include: consuming high amounts of dairy foods, being over the age of 30, and conceiving while breastfeeding. Many fertility drugs including Clomid, Gonal-F, and Follistim also increase the odds of a twin pregnancy.
For a given pregnancy, the odds of conceiving fraternal twins are only determined by the mother's genetics, not the father's.
Compared to mothers without twins at first birth, mothers with twins had higher rates of divorce (OR 1.08, 95% CI 1.01–1.16; predicted absolute risk 13.7% vs 12.7%, p = 0.02). Women who had children later, married later, had at least some college education, and were white were also less likely to divorce.
When there is more than one baby, the uterus is larger and faster-growing, which can put added pressure on nerves, muscles, and more. Though some aches and pains are to be expected, don't accept any discomfort as a matter of course.
“Having twins is not twice as hard—it's exponentially more difficult,” says Natalie Diaz, author of What To Do When You're Having Two and CEO of Twiniversity, a global support network for parents of twins.
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You may experience:
- Breast tenderness.
- Fatigue.
- Frequent urination.
- Increased appetite.
- Morning sickness.
Can you have twins if it doesn't run in your family?
Everyone has the same chance of having identical twins: about 1 in 250. Identical twins do not run in families. But there are some factors that make having non-identical twins more likely: non-identical twins are more common in some ethnic groups, with the highest rate among Nigerians and the lowest among Japanese.
- Elevated hCG levels. Higher-than-normal levels of hCG may indicate that you're pregnant with multiples, but you'll need to wait until your ultrasound to be 100% certain. ...
- Exaggerated pregnancy symptoms. ...
- Intense nausea and vomiting. ...
- A bigger, earlier bump. ...
- One or more twin risk factors. ...
- Intuition.
Morning sickness tends to be more severe for moms having twins than moms having singletons. Hearing heartbeats early on: Your doctor would be able to hear 2 sets of heartbeats as early as 10-12 weeks into pregnancy. Higher water retention: There is a high level of water retention when you are having twins.