Race – 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.
Race – African-American women are more likely to have twins than any other race. Asian and Native Americans have the lowest twinning rates. Caucasian women, especially those over age 35, have the highest rate of higher-order multiple births (triplets or more).
Twin birth rates declined among mothers aged 30 and over, with the largest declines among older mothers aged 40 and over. The twinning rate dropped 7% among non-Hispanic white mothers from 2014 to 2018 (34.3 in 2018), but was essentially unchanged among non-Hispanic black (40.5) and Hispanic (24.4) mothers.
If you're 30 or older, you're more likely than younger people to release more than one egg during a menstrual cycle. You have relatives who have had multiples. If you or other people in your family have had fraternal twins, you may be more likely to have twins, too.
The quick answer to this question is that, in a twin pregnancy, it is the mother's genes that determine twins. First up, giving birth to identical twins is not genetic, but conceiving fraternal twins is. The mother may have the genetic trait of releasing two eggs in one menstrual cycle.
This belief is based on the assumption that twinning is genetic and runs in families. However, if that was truly the case—if there was a twin gene—then twins would occur with predictable frequency in those families that carry the gene. There is no concrete scientific evidence that suggests twins skip a generation.
The notion that twins always skip a generation is also a myth. The illusion may have arisen because men who inherit the gene from their mothers are unaffected by it ( they do not ovulate), but can still pass it on to their daughters, who, in turn, will have an increased likelihood of conceiving twins.
Fraternal twins, which are the more common type of twins, occur when more than one egg is released, fertilized and implanted in the uterus. In other words, fraternal twins are formed from two separate eggs and two separate sperm.
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.
Twins are more or less equally likely to be female or male. Contrary to popular belief, the incidence of twins doesn't skip generations.
The central African country of Benin has the highest national average of twinning, with a whopping 27.9 twins per 1,000 births, the researchers added.
Because more twins are born in Igbo-Ora than anywhere else in the world, walking through the town might make you feel like you are seeing double. Almost every house has at least one set of twins. The production and birth of two children from the same pregnancy is still relatively uncommon.
Researchers analysed records from more than 100 countries and found a substantial rise in twin birthrates since the 1980s, with one in 42 people now born a twin, equivalent to 1.6 million children a year. According to the study, the global twin birthrate has risen by one-third, on average, over the past 40 years.
In the United States, twins account for about 3 percent of live births.
A Russian woman named Valentina Vassilyeva and her husband Feodor Vassilyev are alleged to hold the record for the most children a couple has produced. She gave birth to a total of 69 children – sixteen pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets and four sets of quadruplets – between 1725 and 1765, a total of 27 births.
The birth process is similar to giving birth to a single baby. If you're planning a vaginal birth, your health team may recommend that you have an epidural for pain relief.
When people refer to Irish twins, it's important to recognize that although the siblings are close in age, they are not actually twins. In other words, they were not born during the same gestational period. Calling them Irish twins is just an informal way of classifying siblings that are born close together.
Many women expecting twins have a vaginal birth. However, you won't be able to give birth vaginally if your twins' placenta or placentas are covering your cervix (placenta praevia) near the end of your pregnancy.
You Can Only Control the Things Within Your Control
“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.
A twin pregnancy can often be detected in your first trimester by an ultrasound Opens a new window at 6 weeks or later. If your healthcare provider checks your hcG levels, a higher-than-normal level can be a sign of a twin pregnancy. But you'll need an ultrasound to confirm that it's really twins.
If one identical twin has autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the other twin has a 76 percent chance of also being diagnosed with it. The numbers are lower for fraternal twins.
Monozygotic (identical) twins will have the same blood type, with a few very rare exceptions. Dizygotic (fraternal) twins may have the same blood type, or they may have different types. Therefore, it may be concluded that twins with differing blood types are dizygotic, or fraternal.
However, only women ovulate. So, the mother's genes control this and the fathers don't. This is why having a background of twins in the family matters only if it is on the mother's side. And why your son's family genetics did not play a role in his twins.