The Facts About Twin Pregnancy

The Facts About Twin Pregnancy

Most people believe that multiple pregnancies, of which a twin pregnancy is the most common, carry with them a host of symptoms and complications that is twice or thrice the amount of severity compared to the typical child birth of one baby.

While its true that some people have related experiences about such, most do actually experience similar symptoms that can be compared to an average pregnant women of one.

Symptoms including morning sickness, fatigue or exhaustion, dizzyness and nausea, can’t be as intensified as those who are carrying single babies inside their womb. In other words, if you have a twin pregnancy you won't be twice as exhausted, have twice as much morning sickness or feel twice as dizzy.

The fact is that, most pregnant women who carry twins may not even be aware it for some time, and may even experience the same discomfort similar to when they previously carried on baby.

Perhaps, the fear in people’s minds is that the carrying capacity of the woman’s womb may not be enough to carry more than one baby. The successful birth of so many twins demonstrates that twin pregnancy does not create more strain than an average woman could bear. As you will read along the lines below, you will be able to recognize some of the most common symptoms and inside facts related to multiple pregnancies, especially a twin pregnancy.

How Does It Happen?

There are specifically two types of twin pregnancies: fraternal and identical. The process of producing identical and fraternal twins differs during embryological development and each are discussed below.

1. Identical Twins – In identical twins, a single egg cell fertilized by a viable sperm cell splits into two identical embryos during development. These two egg cells (a product of single fertilized egg cell) develop simultaneously sharing identical features such as sex and looks.

2. Fraternal Twins – For this kind of twins, two viable egg cells fertilized by two individual sperm cells develops simultaneously inside the womb. Due to the individualization of fertilization process, the likelihood that both might be of the same sex or of different sex would be made possible.

Current research indicates that the likelihood of carrying out multiple pregnancies is increased should any one in the family, specifically anyone within your extended family, were born twins. It also shows that the likelihood of carrying multiple pregnancies is increased with age.

Symptoms of Twin Pregnacy

As discussed above, while some of the pregnancy symptoms experienced by parents of twins are not any different than the early signs of pregnancy of those who carry a single baby, the following would interest you:

A. Weight Gain – parents who are pregnant of twins might experience unusual weight gain. The first semester of pregnancy would show a dramatic weight gain where the last semester would show more than 5 pounds difference compared to single pregnancies.

B. Severity of Symptoms – symptoms of pregnancy would sometimes double for multiple pregnancies. There were also reports of severing on several symptoms that usually are non-existent for singles while some would report none.

Nevertheless, it is important to recognize the fact that the type of pregnancy and the host of symptoms related to them will depend on a larger extent on the particular body of the person experiencing the gestation condition.

C. Early Movement of the Fetus – it shows that early fetal movement is the first sign of having twins. Reports on research on medical professionals would disagree on such information for these signs are not medically confirmed and no established facts were recorded to support such claim.

In the same incident, parents who have previously had multiple pregnancies on the first try and have singles on subsequent try would most likely be able to compare the early movement exhibited by twin fetus.

D. Unusual Alphafetoprotein Tests- The Alphafetoprotein tests or commonly known as AFP test is a test carried out among women to detect a suspected pregnancy. AFP is secreted by the liver of the fetus during pregnancy and is mixed up to the mother’s blood and thereby indicates a developing fetus.

This test is also used to detect errors in development and provides clues to the overall condition of the fetus and detects certain genetic abnormalities such as Turner syndrome, Down syndrome among others.

E. Severed veins and Other problems – Do to the increased size of the tummy and weight, the troubles of developing varicose veins and hemorrhoids (piles) are increased by half. The veins located in the opening or wall of the vagina are also usually severed to the point of experiencing irritable and burning sensation around the area.