Conceiving twins...any ideas?

[Flick]

Would love to have twins - any old wives tales or scientific research about increasing the odds of conceiving them?

[jasper]

me too Flick.
Phone the men in white coats.

[helenmc]

if you are a) an older mum b) a white mum and c) a tall mum ...you are statistically more like to have twins, that's non-identical ones. Altenatively marry into a family with loads of identical twins.....

[mears]

What Jasper ??!!??

[elliott]

There are some pretty serious risks associated with twin pregnancy - for example, a 5% risk of stillbirth or death in the first week of life (5 times higher than for singletons). Sure, most twins will be fine, but given the choice it is much safer to have them one at a time.

[KeepingMum]

Keep taking your folic acid as well, I think I remember a study in Scandinavia which showed a correlation between increased multiple births and the advice of taking folic acid. Not sure if they found a causal link or just a co-relation, but they were almost going to stop telling people to take folic acid as the risks of multiple pregnancy outweighed the risk of spina bifida. Can't remember what kind of increase in twin births they had though.

[JanZ]

My dh WAS a twin (he was born fat and happy, his twin wasn't) in the days before scans. My GP best friend says this sounds like a case of an identical twin, twin to twin transfusion (usually fatal (I think).

Identical twins CAN go through the male line, as there is possibly a predisposition to the fertilised egg splitting. (Non-identical twins can only go through the female line, as you need a double ovulation).

I'm an older mum, and white (I didn't know that one helenmc!) but not tall. We're also both left handed - another possible contributory factor.

Plus dh had twins read into his palm!

If when/we go for another one (which I would like sooner rather than later!), it'll be interesting to see what we get!

[suedonim]

Someone we know had boy/girl twins at Xmas. She obviously defied the statistics as she's 22yrs old, Nigerian and 5 ft tall, lol.

Interesting about the male line, Janz, as there are sets of twins in DH's family, including his siblings, who didn't survive. My DD's are both left-handed, as well - I'd better tell them to watch out. I know of two people who lost twins due to twin-to-twin syndrome, one at 24 wks, the other at term, sadly.

[janh]

A friend of ours (quite tall, and white, but not old) got pregnant by accident while in the middle of planning her wedding for the following summer - this turned out to be twins too. So you could add start planning your wedding to the list of ways to have them! (Maybe not if you are already married though.) They are nearly 1 now and no wedding in sight...

JanZ, is it not possible for the double ovulation gene to pass via the father? I always thought it was one of those female things too, but one of my DD2's friends has the most enormous boobs relative to her height, and she has inherited them from her father's mother, so if that can pass via the male line, couldn't other reproductive things too?

[bundle]

a friend of ours is having twins...result of drunken sex after months of not getting on at all well...ho hum.

[lisac]

Haven't the statistics on the age of twin mothers been affected by IVF? I thought that you aren't more likely to have twins if you are older and conceiving naturally, but a person undergoing IVF, who is likely to be older, is significantly more likely to have twins?

[RosieT]

I'm sure they have, lisac, but I've also heard that as we approach the perimenopausal stage, it's very common to start ovulating twice in the same cycle ? hence older mums having twins. It's almost as though our bodies are trying to do something constructive with all those unused eggs!

[GillW]

Janh, I think you're probably right about the genetic propensity for twins being able to skip a (male) generation - it says here that "Fraternal twinning is passed on as a genetic trait and appears in the women only. If your mother has given birth to fraternal twins, your chances of doing so are increased. If you have a brother, his chances are not increased but it he has a daughter, her chances would be increased."

[KeepingMum]

Janh, I presume Janz means through the potential new babies fathers line. Ie if your partner has non-identical twins in his family, there is no way that his genetic disposition is going to make you produce two eggs, but any daughters that you have may be predisposed to produce two eggs. I'm another who has inherited large boobs from my father(! well his sisters anyway), my mum and sister have lovely flat chests.

[KeepingMum]

Oops, GillW beat me to it with a better explanation!

[janh]

Oh, right, I get it - a man with fraternals in the family could pass that on to his daughter but couldn't have them himself. Well duh! Thank you, GillW and KeepingMum ! (I was never very good at biology...)

[JanZ]

Yup - that's what I meant - but better described by GillW and KeepingMum! I suppose baldness is a similar example, but of something that wouldn't show in female offspring - the genetic trait may be carried by the daughter of a bald man, but only her sons would show if it has been passed on. So if your partner has a full head of hair, but your dad is bald as a coot, your son shouldn't be complacent!

[ScummyMummy]

Eat yams! Apparently they have loads of oestrogen(sp?) and that helps. The Yoruba tribes in Nigeria have a yam high diet and also a high proportion of twin births. One of the Yoruban curses is "May you be the mother of twins!"

[jac34]

Ye I can believe it !!!!
Flick, your totally mad !!!

[jac34]

No,..but really, I was 30 when I got pg, I had been taking folic acid for some time, as we had been trying for well over a year( so that could be true),and there were twins on DH's side (identical like ours).

[anais]

I thought twin births were more common to black mothers.

[Ghosty]

I read that too anais ... that black women are more likely to have twins than white women ...
Also ... I have a good friend who had twins (boy and a girl)... no twins in her DH's family but HER MOTHER is a twin ...
Personally I would HATE to have twins ... well if I got them then I would love them obviously but I couldn't think of anything worse ... Flick ... you sound like a lovely person but I think you are barmy!!!!!!!

[zebra]

Doesn't soya contain lots of oestrogens, too?
I would have thought IVF is your best bet, Flick.

Taller is more likely to have twins?? My mom is 5'3", someone in DH's family who is about 5' nothing just had identical twins. Hmmmmm....

[janh]

Is this spooky or what? Wedding invitation arrived this morning from the parents of the surprise twins who prevented it happening last year!

[jasper]

can I retract my comment about wanting twins?
Today I am looking after a friend's baby who is the same age as mine.
It's a holy nightmare