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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to think babies born at different times are not twins

45 replies

Daisypod · 23/03/2011 19:54

First post here be gentle :)

Recently I have come accross a glut of magazine articles where the title of the article is something along the lines of 'My twins were born 2 years apart'

Basically because these people have had fertility treatment and the eggs implanted are from the same batch they are saying that the babies born as a result are 'twins'

Just getting a bit sick of it as I certainly do not class them as twins no matter when the egg was produced.

Sorry don't know why this bothers me so much

OP posts:

Pumpster · 23/03/2011 19:56

Me neither!

Rowan49 · 23/03/2011 19:57

I agree as well.

Although I do know twins born either side of midnight on August 31/September 1 who are in different school years!

ethelina · 23/03/2011 19:57

I agree. Twins would have to share a pregnancy IMO.

ethelina · 23/03/2011 19:57

That must suck Rowan.

nobiggy · 23/03/2011 19:58

Nothing ticks me off more than fake twins

BooyHoo · 23/03/2011 19:58

i agree with ethelina. twins are two babies carried in the same pregnancy.

TidyDancer · 23/03/2011 19:58

No way are those babies in the OP twins. How ridiculous!

SardineQueen · 23/03/2011 19:59

Never heard this before! I think YANBU. Twins are carried at the same time.

Plus I thought we were all born with all our eggs and they just ripen (usually) one at a time. So if twins are children from teh same "batch" of eggs then anyone with two children has twins, 3 children triplets etc.

Erm so it's just silly, actually!

Original poster

Daisypod · 23/03/2011 19:59

thank you, thought I was going nuts not really believing it

OP posts:

EdgarAleNPie · 23/03/2011 20:00

if the eggs had divided they would be twins though (you know, if a fertilised egg becomes two fertilized eggs and ar implanted at different times) in terms f genetics.

Mutt · 23/03/2011 20:01

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

campion · 23/03/2011 20:04

I was born 3 and a half hours after my twin brother and that was considered v unusual at the time.
These stories irritate me no end.
So does the different school years story, Rowan49. How inflexible is that?

peeriebear · 23/03/2011 20:07

What about that gay couple who have lots of children? I can't remember their names, sorry Their eldest son and the middle son are identical twins aren't they? But implanted years apart. Correct me if I'm wrong!

hermioneweasley · 23/03/2011 20:08

why would this bother you??

sims2fan · 23/03/2011 20:09

Rowan - I've always wondered what would happen in a case like that, whether both children would be allowed to be in the same year or if they would have to be split. Just proves how silly it is really to have such strict rules on year group admittance.

SardineQueen · 23/03/2011 20:11

They should have let those children into the same year group, that's truly ridiculous.

On the rest - if they were identical then that would be different - as they are genetically identical and the only name we have for that at the moment is twins (or clones? but that has spooky overtones... so best not).

The language needs to catch up with the different things that can happen now!

pjmama · 23/03/2011 20:17

Would a single embryo split into identical twins at the test tube stage? If so, then identical twins could be implanted seperately and still genetically be true twins. I know of cases where IVF has resulted in identical twins, but in the cases I'm familiar with the split occurred AFTER implantation into the mother - not sure if a split before implantation is even possible. Other than that scenario, I would concur that non-identical siblings would have be the result of a shared pregnancy to be classed as fraternal twins. Genetically fraternal twins are just the same as any other siblings, two separate eggs fertilized by two separate sperm - for twins it just happens at the same time.

Magazine articles like this are usually just headline grabbing garbage anyway, take with a pinch of salt!

ohnoshedittant · 23/03/2011 20:18

I think that's right peeriebear. The oldest two children shared a pregnancy, but have different fathers(!) and the third child is the identical twin of the older boy, but was born 4 years later or something...

ethelina · 23/03/2011 20:18

Yes Edgar and Peerie, I suppose if they are from the same egg then they would be genetically twins, but would they ever implant one and not the other?

foreverondiet · 23/03/2011 20:23

In my DD's class are a set of (identical) twins with 31 aug/1 sept birthdays. Its at the "discretion of the headteacher" - they are the youngest in the class. There was never any suggestion that they would be in different school years.

blueemerald · 23/03/2011 20:27

Conversely there are brothers in the school I work at who are both in year 7 but not twins. Not adopted, moved up or down a year or anything like that, just a fertile mother, I guess :) (One September birthday and one late July)

foreverondiet · 23/03/2011 20:28

I rad an article about a family who did surrogacy with 2 different carrier mothers simulataneously. The babies were genetically full siblings, implanted on same day, but born 5 days apart to 2 different surrogates.

The biological mother said that although they looked like twins they were not infact twins as they did not share a pregnancy.

The twins in the OP are not twins! They:

didn't share a pregnancy
they are not the same age
are not genetically identical

AnnNonMouse · 23/03/2011 21:30

I wonder if (there must be somewhere!) there are twins with different years of birth ie born either side of midnight on NYE?
ORRRRR different decades 2010/2011
ORRRRR different millennia 1999/2000

!!!!!!
How strange would that be

catfunt · 23/03/2011 21:46

A girl I went to school with had her twins 28 days apart! I only managed a measly 8 minutes between mine....

upyourdiva · 23/03/2011 21:50

I read this fully expecting to have to shout 'Well unless you can shoot 2 kids out yer fanjo hand in hand then YABU'...

But you appear to have more sense than that so no YANBU :o

I also know of twins born on different days, 11.35pm December 31st 12.15am January 1st! They are identical and one of them got really excited at her 21st because she was a year older than her twin for a whole 40 minutes :o

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