Multiple birth: Encyclopedia - Multiple birth

Multiple birth

Twins, triplets and multiple births occur with to varying degrees in most animal species, although the term is most applicable to species in the Placentalia subclass. A multiple birth, for human beings, results when more than one human baby is born from a single pregnancy.

Multiple birth - Classification

The most common form of human multiple birth is twins (two babies), but cases of triplets (three), quadruplets (four), quintuplets (five), sextuplets (six), septuplets (seven), and octuplets (eight) have all been recorded with all siblings being born alive. The largest set in which all members survived more than a few days is septuplets, the first of which was in 1997. There have been a few sets of nonuplets (nine) in which a few babies were born alive, and there have been pregnancies — but no known instances of live births — of decaplets (ten), undecaplets (eleven), duodecaplets (twelve), and quindecaplets (fifteen). Most of these are a result of fertility drugs, though a set of duodecaplets was conceived spontaneously (without the aid of fertility treatments) in Argentina in 1992.

There are two types of multiple births, fraternal and identical. Identical siblings arise where one egg is fertilized and the resulting zygote splits into more than one embryo. Identical siblings therefore have the same genetic material. Fraternal siblings result from the fertilization and implantation of more than one egg, so fraternal siblings are not genetically identical.

Higher orders of multiple births (triplets or higher) may result in a combination of fraternal and identical siblings, and are occasionally given the term of super twins. As an example, a set of quadruplets may consist of two sets of identical twins. For simplicity, we'll say two are male, the other two, female. If the two male children have an identical genetic code, then they are considered identical twins in and of themselves. Likewise for the female children. The males are considered fraternal to the females, but identical to their brother. This isn't limited to just male/female quadruplets, but they statistically make up half of all quadruplet identical super twins. Other cases may involve just one set of identical twins with one or more fraternal siblings.

Multiple birth - Human multiple births

Multiple birth - Causes and frequency

Human multiple births can occur either naturally (the woman ovulates multiple eggs or the fertilized egg splits into two) or as the result of infertility treatments (several embryos are usually implanted to compensate for their lower viability).

In general, twins occur naturally at approximately the rate of 1/89 of singleton births, triplets at 1/89 the rate of twin births, and so on (Hellin's Law). However, for reasons that are unknown, the older a woman is, the more likely she is to naturally have a multiple birth.

The number of multiple births has increased over the last decades. For example, in Canada, between 1979 and 1999, the number of multiple birth babies increased 35%. Much of the increase can probably attributed to the impact of fertility treatments, such as in vitro fertilization. Younger patients who undergo treatment with fertility medication containing FSH followed by intrauterine insemination are at particular risk for multiple biths of higher order.

Certain factors appear to increase the likelihood that a woman will naturally conceive multiples. These factors include:

• mother's age — women over 35 are more likely to have multiples than younger women
• mother's race — African women have a frequency of 16 fraternal twin pairs per 1,000 births; East Asian women have a frequency of 3 pairs of fraternal twins per 1,000 births; Caucasian women have a frequency of 8 pairs of fraternal twins per 1,000 births
• mother's use of fertility drugs — approximately 35% of pregnancies arising through the use of fertility treatments such as IVF involve more than one child

The increasing use of fertility drugs as well the increasing life expectancy for women have contributed to the rise in the rate of multiples over the last fifty years.

Multiple birth - Risks

Recent increases over the last few years in the number of multiple births have also provoked concern over the risks to the fetus and also to the mother.

The greater the number of babies in a single pregnancy, the more likely they are to have a low birth weight, to be born prematurely and to consequently suffer medical problems. For example, in 1999, 53% of babies in multiple births were premature, compared to 7% of singletons.There is also a higher rate of stillbirths for multiples than for singletons.

Virtually all obstetrical risks are increased for the mother during a pregnancy with multiples. As many multiple pregnancies today are the result of the use of fertility therapy, efforts are being made to reduce the risks of multiple pregnancy, specifically triplets or more, by limiting the number of embryos embryo transfer during IVF to 1 or 2. Sometimes a selective reduction -- the abortion of one or more of the multiple fetuses -- is performed to give the pregnancy a higher chance of producing at least one healthy or live child.

Multiple birth - Cultural aspects

Certain cultures consider multiple births a portent of either good or evil. A North Korean tradition stating that triplets are 'lucky' has led to the seizure of all sets of triplets born in North Korea, apparently out of leader Kim Jong-il's fear that one may overthrow him in the future. In Ancient Rome, the legend of the twin brothers who founded the city (Romulus and Remus) made the birth of identical twin boys a blessing, while identical twin girls were seen as an unlucky burden.

Multiple birth - List of famous multiple births

• The Keys quadruplets (born on June 4, 1915 in Hollis, Oklahoma), were the first same sex quadruplets known to survive to adulthood.
• The Dionne quintuplets (born on May 28, 1934 near Corbeil, Ontario, Canada) were the first quintuplets known to survive their infancy.
• The Rosenkowitz sextuplets (born on January 11, 1974 in Cape Town, South Africa) were the first sextuplets known to survive their infancy.
• The Walton sextuplets (born on November 11, 1983 in Liverpool) were the first sextuplets born in the United Kingdom known to survive their infancy.
• The Frustaci septuplets (born on May 21, 1985) were the first septuplets to be born in the United States. Only three babies survived.
• The Dilley sextuplets (born on May 25, 1993 in Indianapolis) were the first surviving sextuplets to be born in the United States.
• The McCaughey septuplets (born on November 19, 1997 in Des Moines, Iowa) were the world's first surviving set of septuplets.
• The Humair septuplets (born on January 14, 1998 in Abha, Saudi Arabia) were the world's second surviving set of septuplets, born to a 40-year-old mother.
• The Chukwu octuplets (born in December 1998 in Houston) were the first set of octuplets born in the United States. The smallest of the octuplets, Odera, died a week after birth.
• The Qahtani septuplets (born on July 12, 2001 in Washington, DC) were the third set of septuplets to live past infancy.
• The Dahm Sisters were the only Playboy triplet centerfolds.
• The Armstrong triplets - Lil, Helen and Kate, were the first triplets to all be accepted to Cambridge University [1].

Multiple birth - Fictional multiple births

• In the television series The Simpsons, Apu and Manjula Nahasapeemapetilon had octuplets: Anoop, Uma, Nabendu, Poonam, Pria, Sandeep, Sashi, and Gheet (also known as Lincoln, Freedom, Condoleezza, Coke, Pepsi, Manifest Destiny, Apple Pie, and Superman). They were a result of an overdosage of fertility drugs.
  • The record was soon broken by a couple with nonuplets in Shelbyville, the archenemy of Springfield.
• In the television series Quintuplets, there are five children born simultaneously: Parker, Pierce, Patton, Penny, and Paige.
• In the movie Raising Arizona, the plot is largely driven by the protagonists' kidnapping of Nathan Arizona, Jr., one of a set of quintuplets.
• Among Disney characters, multiple births seem to be rather common. Donald Duck's nephews, Huey, Dewey and Louie are triplets; and so are Daisy Duck's nieces, April, May and June. Mickey Mouse's nephews, Morty and Ferdie Fieldmouse, are twins, as are Tweedledee and Tweedledum from Disney's Alice in Wonderland based on the Lewis Carroll stories. Even the Beagle Boys have a set of triplet descendants, the Beagle Brats.

See also

• List of famous trinities, trios, triplets, or threesomes
• Twins

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Multiple birth", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki