to think babies born at different times are not twins

[Daisypod]

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

My mum is an identical twin and was born at 11.50, her twin was born at 12.10, I always thought when I was growing up that it was the norm that twins had different birthdays

I'd like to hear of twins born on the night the clocks go back so the twin born second has an earlier birth time than the twin born first! They could fight for the rest of their lives about who was oldest!
With regards to the twins in the op, if they came from an embryo that split in the petri dish then they are twins born two years apart. But if they were just embryos formed at the same time then they are not.

My mum is a twin, but was born 3 1/2 days after her sister. So Aunty Helen was born on the 28th July and Mum on the 31st.

It really irritates my mum when people say they aren't twins (not identical, so not that obvious at first).

On another note, my grandma didn't know she was having twins (and neither did the doctors, worryingly!) until she had given birth to Aunty Helen, and then they realised there was still one in there! Three days later, my mum appeared!

wow, that shows how much more advanced we have become in such a short space of time!

well of course you're right but I can't imagine why you would care at all?

Yes Jazz - my mum is only 60 this year. To be fair though, my grandma lived on a farm in the countryside in Australia and didn't see the doctors very often. Also, as it was her first pregnancy, she didn't realise that she wasn't supposed to be that huge!

But surely the doctors would have realised when she went into labour? Obvioulsy not!

Also, I feel really sorry for my grandma, as she had to give birth and do labour twice in 3 days!

If I had the 31 Aug/1 Sep nightmare, I would have bribed the hospital to lie and write them both as 31 August

I would've gone the other way and asked for 1st Sep :)

I think you may be reading the wrong magazines . . .

OP YANBU
Way too many ppl like to think they know about having twins because 'my DC are only 9 months apart' etc. etc. Rubbish, twins = split egg or two eggs carried in one pregnancy, one highly stretched womb etc., and DOUBLE the SAME ROUTINE / ISSUES / JOYS :) etc. Having two DC close in age is completely different.

That said, my DTDs are exactly two years younger than PFB DS, by the time they were 5 and he was 7 they appeared to be triplets, leading to a barrage of stupid questions from the general publc eg 'Are they identical triplets?' duuur :(

While I sympathise with anyone struggling TTC, children born at different times from harvested, frozen, defrosted, implated etc. means are absolutely NOT twins, much as Take a Break would like to describe them as such !

I'm sure Take a Break don't really think they are twins either, just hope that a sensationalist headline will boost sales!

"If I had the 31 Aug/1 Sep nightmare, I would have bribed the hospital to lie and write them both as 31 August"

My friend said she tried that first. They said no as time logged by computer as soon as a baby is born!

She is still angry 7 years later as they insisted on her having an epidural (she had normal deliveries for previoyus 3 children) but they wanted her to have epidural incase she needed emergency CS. She claims the epidural slowed everything down.

re: the younger year, that would def have been allowed, more at the discretion of the head for them to be in the older year. She doesn't know yet what will happen at secondary school though.

It was in Practical Parenting, wasn't it? I've just read it and thought the same - YANBU. I like the way the headline is in really small writing on the front cover, as if they're embarassed to be using a Take a Break style teaser to get you to buy the mag, but still desperate to sell more copies so thought they'd give it a shot.

Of course they aren't twins, if this was true I'd have quads from my one batch of embryos!

Yanbu, it annoys me too!

Nothing ticks me off more than fake twins

I might have 3 in the same school year! Had twin DDs last September and am due this September but if Bump is early like his/her older siblings s/he could be a late August baby

I am currently in the exact position you mention OP. I have a set of twins from one cycle of ivf and am currently pregnant with their brother or sister a frozen embryo from the same batch of eggs. In no way do I consider this child my other childrens twin. As somebody who has carried twins I think it is insulting to say otherwise. A twin pregnancy is very hard work.

Thanks for your common sense Twinmummy79 - great news for you and good luck :)

Congrats twinmummy!