Carrying Multiples

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What causes a multiple birth . What it's like to be pregnant with multiples . The facts about selective reduction . What you should do now to prepare for your babies' arrival . How to shop for your babies without going broke

Carrying Multiples

If you've just discovered that you're carrying multiples, you are probably experiencing a mix of emotions. On the one hand, you may feel very special to be carrying two or more babies—

particularly if you had a great deal of difficulty conceiving. On the other hand, you may feel concerned about what this pregnancy may mean to your physical health, and worried about what giving birth to more than one baby may mean to your finances and your relationship with your partner or other children.

Once you and your partner have had a chance to absorb the news, you will probably find that you have a million questions about being pregnant and giving birth to multiples. You may be wondering what causes a multiple pregnancy, how a multiple pregnancy differs from a singleton pregnancy, what can go wrong and why, what you should do to prepare for your babies' arrival, and what to expect during the first few weeks. These are just some of the issues we address in this chapter.

" Our first reaction was, 'Wow, isn't that neat?' Our second reaction was, 'Oh my God, what have we done?'
—Anita, 35, mother of twins "

Why the number of multiple births is on the rise

The latest figures from the National Center for Health Statistics show a remarkable increase in the number of multiple births in America. Since 1980, the number of twins has increased by 37%, and the number of triplets and other "higher-order multiples" (the trendy term these days is "supertwins") has increased by an astounding 312%. This translates into 100,750 babies born as twins, 5,298 as triplets, 560 as quadruplets, and 81 as quintuplets or other higher-order multiples per year.

Two key factors are responsible for the increasing numbers of multiples, according to the National Center for Health Statistics: the fact that an increasing number of women in their late thirties are giving birth and the growing popularity of fertility treatments such as ovulation-inducing drugs and in vitro fertilization.

Scientists believe that women between the ages of 35 and 39 are more likely to give birth to multiples than women in other age groups because the body begins to produce higher levels of gona-dotropin hormones, which cause more eggs to mature and be released from the ovaries. The National Center for Health Statistics attributes one-third of the rise in multiple births to this age factor.

The second factor—the growing popularity of fertility treatments—is credited with the other two-thirds of the increase in multiple births. About 20% of women undergoing fertility treatments have multiple births, as opposed to approximately 1.5% of all women giving birth in the United States.