Doug Malm's wife, Jill, was having a hard day. Doug went into the kitchen and tried to fondle her, quietly go

How twins married twins and what came of it

10:45 23 June 2017

Doug Malm's wife, Jill, was having a hard day. Doug walked into the kitchen and tried to fondle her, discreetly coming up from behind, hugging and kissing her neck. The moment of tenderness ended abruptly when Doug suddenly realized that he was not kissing his wife. Despite the fact that they have not been married for the first year, he accidentally showed his love to the wrong address, confusing her twin sister Jena with Jill, who is married to his brother.

Doug and Jill have been living under the same roof for 24 years with their siblings, Phil and Jena, who are also married. Their large family home is in Moscow, Idaho. There are only 250 married couples of twins in the world, and this makes the history of the Malm family even more unusual.

It is believed that there is a very close psycho-emotional connection between twins. The Malm twins are inseparable too: they always dine at the same table, travel together, wear the same hairstyle, work in the same job, and even choose matching clothes. But they are still confused about who is who and where is whose husband or wife.

“You don't have to make rash conclusions from the back, it won't get you any good,” laughs Doug. "But Jill, on the other hand, would never have let Phil get that far." Sometimes Phil and Doug accidentally change places where they usually sit at home for breakfast, which confuses their wives who want to kiss their spouses goodbye before leaving for work. By the way, the work of the sisters is the same as that of the brothers.

Jill and Jena dress the same. They have their favorite blue jackets as well as red jackets. Phil is having a hard time trying to figure out where his wife is and where is his daughter-in-law. “Unfortunately, it happens that I cannot distinguish between them, so I act as with Jena and see which of them reacts. We never get close to each other too quickly, ”says Phil.

Despite the confusion, the Malm clan manages to coexist peacefully under one roof. Doug and Jill have a daughter, Riley, who is 19, and Phil and Jena have an 18-year-old son, Tim. All six inhabitants of the house now have to shove in the same bathroom, because Doug is doing repairs. Jena says: “We go there in shifts. If they are in the bathroom, I try to find something else to do ... ”Phil says that he usually just rushes his brother and his wife.

Malmas constantly talk about each other and are able to finish each other's sentences, as they know in advance what their relative is going to say. Doug and Phil even managed to propose to the sisters in chorus at the largest twin festival in the country - the Twin Days Festival - in 1992. Doug jokes that he could easily ask if his girlfriend would marry him and his brother, and not just him alone.

The siblings met at the 1991 Twin Festival. The sisters, whose maiden name is Lassen, came to the event with their mother from their native Battlecreek, Michigan. While enjoying the holiday, they accidentally broke their camera, and no one could help them deal with it. “In the end, we went up to two guys and asked them something like 'Do you know what this red light on the camera means?' They said they didn't know, but they could try to help, ”Jena says.

“Later that evening, Jill and I were in our hotel room and decided we needed to find these young people because they were cool and something attracted us to them, we needed to see them,” she added. The next day, the sisters met Doug and Phil, who suddenly appeared in front of them in line, and spent the rest of the day with new friends. Phil immediately liked Jen and left his brother with Jill. She already had a young man then. As the festival drew to a close, 34-year-old brothers exchanged addresses with 24-year-old sisters, and Phil was looking forward to the opportunity to interact again.

“I said to Doug, 'You will find them, I will marry them,” says Phil. The brothers found their phone number, and so the romance began at a distance of 2 thousand miles. The first telephone conversations were very awkward: not only the three-hour time difference interfered with, but also the awkwardness in front of the future daughter-in-law and son-in-law. According to Jill, the first conversation was the driest and she was not sure if anything would come of it.

Over the next few months, Doug and Phil continued to talk to the girls on the phone and did not understand who they were feeling for, since they only knew the names of the twin girls. However, things got better the following year when Doug bought the last lottery ticket from a local shop in Idaho and won a Caribbean cruise. The brothers wanted to invite twin sisters. The girls were just on vacation, so they could go. It remains to enlist the consent of their mother.

“Of course, our parents told us that we are already 25 years old and we can make decisions on our own, so we looked at each other and decided that we were going on a cruise,” Jenna says in chorus with Jill. When the siblings finally met at the hotel before sailing, they resolved the identification problem. “Not knowing which one is Jena, and not being sure who I was talking to, my brother and I went to their hotel room, we looked them straight in the eyes and said:“ Choose one once and for all, ”recalls Phil.

It seems that the girls made the right choice: the guys offered them a hand and a heart just a few months later. Jena and Jill took part in the doppelganger competition and won, but the real prize was the appearance of Doug and Phil: they confessed their love and invited the girls to marry. “After we made an offer at the festival, the coordinators asked if we wanted to have a wedding right there. We thought and agreed, because the girls had not finished their studies yet. We decided to marry them after they graduated from college because we didn't want them to wonder why we didn't let them graduate. ”

When the audience heard this, they were delighted. Complete strangers hugged and kissed the twins, congratulating them on their engagement. Doug and Jill, Phil and Jena were married on August 7, 1993. The brothers were dressed in the same tailcoats, and the sisters, having tried on 53 dresses, settled on the same white outfits.

The Malm brothers are happy with their choice and say that if each of them had chosen a different sister, things would have turned out differently. “Personality plays a big role in our relationship. If Jenna was with Doug, and I was with Jill, there would be no wedding, says Phil. “I think in terms of character we are the same. That is, Phil and I are more organized twins, while Jill and Doug are more relaxed. We're just very good for each other, ”adds Jena.

Before meeting their wives, the brothers did not spend so much time together. “When we were growing up, we went to different places and our friends were not always aware that there were two of us,” says Doug. Jena and Jill were inseparable, slept in the same room, drove the same car, had the same bank account, and even went to school of business and accounting together, and then at Western Michigan University.

The brothers knew about this and decided that it was better not to separate the sisters, who were used to spending all their time together. Doug and Phil are already retired and previously worked as carpenters. They now spend a lot of time playing golf, watching TV and renovating the house.

Children of twins are cousins ​​to each other, but since childhood they live like siblings and believe that they have twice as many parents. Both work in an entertainment center at a local college and are often mistaken for twins. Tim says that someone once thought he and Riley were dating.

Riley says they are constantly asked if they are related. They are really similar to each other, and they have the same surname. They differ only in their interests: Riley likes biology, while Tim is more into drama and theater. Both have different groups of friends, but they spend time together quite often.

Hello dear readers!

I was walking down the street yesterday and saw wonderful twins. Thoughts about this immediately started spinning in my head. And today I propose to try to understand the question of what is the probability of having twins or twins, and at the same time to estimate your own chances of such a miracle.

Raising children of the same age is somewhat more difficult and costly, although there is always a lot of trouble with one baby. But there are also pluses - children always have a playmate, and in general, having a brother or sister is much better than being alone.

Twins always arouse increased interest among others, because they are born much less often than children - "loners". In the past, the twins phenomenon could be attributed to mystical properties. In some cultures, the appearance of several children from one pregnancy was considered a gift from the gods and a blessing of the family, while in others - the intrigues of dark forces.

There is still an opinion that twins can have one soul for two. Whether this is so, we do not know, but there are many coincidences in fate. Although this may be due to the same type of inclinations, preferences and hereditary characteristics.

You know the answer to the question “where do children come from”. If the meeting of an egg and a sperm cell was productive, they merged, then a zygote cell is formed, and from this single cell over the next 9 months a complex multicellular human body develops. What's next? One baby or several?

In some cases, the developing embryo is divided into two parts, as a result, genetically identical organisms appear, necessarily of the same sex. In fact, this is an analogue of clones, only natural. Their fabrics are the same in all respects.

They can be donors for each other. Since two people develop from one egg, they are called identical twins. Yes, and they also have one dad. In which case this will happen, what can cause the embryo to split into two halves - science does not yet know.

Depending on the period of "bifurcation", children may have a common placenta, or one amniotic fluid for two. Or all separately, if the babies are divided in the first days after conception. A problematic option is conjoined, or "Siamese" twins. But this is extremely rare - one case in 10 million births.

With fraternal twins, the situation is somewhat more complicated, but they are more common, and their appearance has an explanation. By the way, they are popularly called twins, although from the point of view of medicine, the term "twins", "triplets", "quadruplets", etc. means only the number of fetuses during pregnancy.

Only now the thought occurred to me that the names "five", "gear" also resemble something else. But where to go - how many have counted, so let's call it. So why are they different? - because my mother had two eggs at the same time, or even more.

It happened during one cycle, fertilization most likely happened at the same time. Individual eggs were fertilized by separate sperm. And as a result, two different fruits were obtained, with different genetics, it is quite possible that they are of different sexes.

And for each other they are biologically close no more than ordinary brothers and sisters from different pregnancies. Relatives - yes, but not identical. And we cannot hide this fact from you - the dads here may be different.

If a woman has matured two eggs, and she has managed to have sexual intercourse with several men, and at least two, then the so-called "super fertilization" could occur - the embryos will have different fathers. What is the likelihood of such a development of events and whether this could happen at all - the expectant mother knows better.

Role of heredity

We clarify right away - the probability of the birth of identical twins is not inherited by inheritance. It's different with fraternal twins. The ability to hyperovulation is inherited, that is, the simultaneous maturation of several eggs.

It is clear that only women can manifest it, and the chances of getting pregnant with twins from a twin man are the same as from any other. But the daughters of such a dad can get the gene for hyperovulation, and it is they who can show the world a multiple pregnancy.

Only daughters. Sons have nothing to do with it, and the birth of twins depends on their wives. Now it is clear through which line this tendency is transmitted - through the female, and indirectly through the male.

It is also understandable why twins appear in some families through a generation (the chain "grandmother-granddaughter" if the grandmother had only sons), and in others - in each (continuous "female" line of the grandmother, her daughters and then granddaughters from the daughters)

Who has the best chances?

There is no definite advice on how to get pregnant with twins with a full guarantee.
But there are many factors contributing to this result, and in addition to the heredity discussed above:

1. Age of the future mother- at a young and young age, the likelihood of having twins is extremely small. Closer to the age of 30, and often even after 35 years, it is higher. This is due to the intense production of hormones in a woman. Further, according to age, the chances seem to be lower, but late pregnancies are often possible after treatment, including hormone therapy that stimulates ovulation. Therefore, many couples, previously childless, become the parents of several children at once, and now we are not talking about IVF, about it a little lower.
2. Repeated births - with each subsequent birth, the likelihood of having twins is higher.
3. Hormone therapy- and, not only the use of drugs that stimulate ovulation, in the treatment of infertility. Contraceptive use also plays a positive role, oddly enough it sounds. Of course, twins will "work out" not during the course of contraception, but after it is canceled. The woman's body has rested, and now it intensively produces its own hormones. An important condition is that the duration of the course of taking medications should be at least 6 months. Then you can get the expected effect. In no case do not take any, even microdose, drugs yourself. And advices walking in different forums on how to increase the chances of giving birth to several heirs at the same time - to drink medications stimulating ovulation, generally beyond what is permissible. Any medications, especially hormones, are prescribed only by a specialist doctor after examination. It is he who will select the course of treatment that suits you. And remember - hormones are not a vitamin ki, which you can drink on your own, although it is also better not necessary.
4. With IVF (in vitro fertilization, that is, fertilization outside the mother's body, in a test tube, relatively speaking), several embryos are implanted into the uterus, in the hope that at least one will take root. But it happens that several are fixed, or even all. Some embryos in such cases offer to remove, but the parents decide what to do in such a situation.
5. The time of conception, more precisely, the season of the year. When daylight hours are longer, hormones are produced more intensely. Therefore, the spring-summer attempt to acquire heirs can please you with a double or more result.
6. Adequate nutrition and adequate body weight... And even a little redundant. A larger and more corpulent mother is more likely to have several babies than a thin and small one. Not to mention the exhausted diets, if suddenly she was able to get pregnant.
7. Nationality, or rather even race. It is known that the likelihood that a twin or twins will be born in black women is higher, in second place are fair-skinned Europeans, in women of Hispanic and especially Asian descent, even twins are rare, not to mention more.

Summing up

In what cases and who has a double -, a triple - and other "nyashki" and how they figured out a little. The highest chances, but absolutely no guarantees, are given by IVF. You can transplant several embryos, but suddenly, none of them will take root ...

Now you know what contributes to the result. We ourselves can influence some factors, some - only medicine. Something depends on the moments that cannot be changed. For example, no one has managed to change the race yet, skin whitening does not count.

And you can't argue with heredity - what is given is what it is. So try and put your trust in fate. Did you manage to get pregnant? How many babies, the test will not be able to show, only.

Features of the course of multiple pregnancies, preparation for childbirth - questions for separate conversations. We hope you liked our article, if yes, you can recommend it to your friends to read it.

With you was Ekaterina Chesnakova with garlic, peppercorns and a zest. See you soon.

Motherhood is an invaluable gift that nature can give to a woman.

Carrying a child is not always easy, but the joy and happiness that they bring to parents cannot be described in words!

Unfortunately, there are many women who cannot bear and give birth to a child. This can be for various reasons, from health problems to accidents, after which pregnancy is impossible.

This is exactly what happened to Andrea Rivas, the wife of Mark Rivas, who was friends with Sandy and Philip Palmisano. These two couples tried to have children many times, but, unfortunately, fate did not give them such a chance.

Therefore, they decided to contact the Fertility Center, where they met and became friends.

Several years passed before the first big news was reported to both couples, after 2 years the Rivases got what they most wanted, such a coveted pregnancy. 9 months later, Andrea gave birth to two twins: Conor and Avery.

But, unfortunately, Palmisano was not as lucky as their friends, and two years later their dreams collapsed altogether when they learned that Rivasov's desire to become parents had come true. Four years later, Palmisano has never been able to conceive, even after so many attempts.

However, Andrea, Sandy's best friend, made them one of the best offers of their life: to carry them a baby.

Palmisano agreed, and Andrea easily became pregnant. After several months of pregnancy, Andrea underwent a routine ultrasound examination, which showed amazing results ... It turned out that she is pregnant with twins, AGAIN!

Palmisano rallied even more when they learned that they would have a boy and a girl. This is something incredible. And this incredible happened in the delivery room when Andrea gave birth to two twins: Grayson and Emma Lee.

Now both couples have what they wanted so much, and their friendship has become one of the most important things in their life.

But the surprises did not end there ... A few months after she gave birth to her twin friend, Andrea again began to feel pain in the lower abdomen, so she decided to be examined.

And what a surprise! Andrea was pregnant again ... And even better ... Two twins! Yes, two twins again.

Twins, twins, triplets ...

Birth of twins is a fairly common phenomenon. For many centuries, scientists have been struggling with the question of why the birth of twins in a particular woman depends, but it has not been possible to find an unambiguous answer to this question, although most of them associate this with genetic predispositions, and also, oddly enough, with the age of the mother.

According to some reports, age is an equally important criterion influencing the birth of twins, triplets, etc. Statistics confirm that the largest number of twin births was observed in mothers aged 37-38 years, and after this age, the number of multiple births was greatly reduced.

Of course, statistics do not take into account such a phenomenon as multiple pregnancies as a result of IVF. Quite often, twins and twins are born in couples who have been treated for infertility: sometimes the release of two or more eggs during ovulation is triggered by taking special drugs. And in cases where eggs are fertilized "in vitro" (this is called "in vitro fertilization", that is, fertilization "outside the body"), a woman is usually implanted with several embryos at once - God forbid, that at least one "hooked". It happens that more than one takes root - and the once sterile spouses suddenly become parents of two (or even three!) Babies at once.

According to some scientists, the frequency of birth of twins and twins depends to some extent on the place of residence of their parents. In countries with a temperate climate, the frequency is slightly higher than in countries with a hot climate, according to a group of specialist scientists.

In 1895, the French biologist D. Ellin formulated regularity in the birth of twins, according to which there is one twins per 85 ordinary births, one triplets per 85 twins, 4 twins per 85 triplets, etc. To put it simply, twins occur in 85 births, triplets in almost 7,000 births, and quadruples in 680,000 births.

I look at you like in a mirror ...

Where do twins and twins come from?
With twins, the situation is much simpler. As a rule, in a healthy woman of childbearing age, one egg matures once a month, from which, in case of fertilization, one child is born. But sometimes it happens that not one, but two eggs come out of the ovaries at the same time. If, by the will of fate, spermatozoa "catch up" with them and both embryos successfully attach to the mucous membrane of the uterus, then two children are born at once. Even if they are of the same sex, they are still different. That is, they are similar, as ordinary sisters or brothers would be.

Multiple births statistics

In Austria, a certain Mrs. Scheinberg gave birth 27 times, gave birth to 69 babies, and 4 times she gave birth to 4 children, 7 times to 3 and 16 times to 2.

Another Austrian in 11 births gave birth to 3 twins, 6 triplets and 2 quadruples.

For many years in Russia, in one of the clinics, a lady was under the supervision of doctors who gave birth to 6 twins, 7 triplets and 4 quadruples (total: 49 children).

In 1755, a peasant from the village of Vvedensky Yakov Kirillov, 60 years old, was introduced to the court of Empress Elizabeth. He was married a second time, his first wife gave birth to 57 living children in 21 pregnancies, the second gave birth to 15 children in 7 pregnancies, and from two wives Kirillov had 72 children.

José Pulido, a Spanish shepherd from the province of Cordoba, was awarded the Father of the Year award at the age of 107. His three wives bore him 36 children: the first thirteen, the second eleven, and the third twelve.

In the late 70s of the last century, according to Muslim customs, the Sudanese Bishara Mohammed el Shayeb married four women. All four spouses bore him two sons.

The scientific literature indicates that by the end of the Second World War, a little more than 6 cases of the birth of 6 twins were known. However, in 1965, six twins were born in Humant, Brazil. In Faridipur District (Pakistan) in 1967, a young woman gave birth to six boys. In 1974, Suzanne Roznkowitz (25 years old) from the town of Kopstadt (Germany) gave birth to 3 girls and 3 boys at a time. In 1983, a woman from Blankenberg (Belgium) gave birth to six babies (5 boys and one girl).

Claude Adam, a 29-year-old Frenchwoman, became the mother of six twins. In one of the Parisian maternity hospitals, she gave birth to two boys and four girls. The weight of newborns ranges from 1320-1470 grams. All children are healthy. This is the first recorded birth of six children in France.

But six children at a time is not the limit. In the German city of Chamelon, there is a bas-relief with the signature: "When the year 1600 came, on January 9 in the morning, she gave birth to two boys and five girls." Although, apart from the bas-relief, there is no documentary confirmation of this fact.

But at the beginning of the 20th century, 6 cases of the birth of 7 twins were already officially registered. Medicine claims that there are known cases of birth and eight twins, but this is already hard to believe.

Interesting Facts

Longest interval between births of twins. Mrs. Peggy Lynn gave birth to daughter Hannah on November 11, 1995 and her brother Eric on February 2, 1996, 84 days later.

The tallest male twins are Americans Michael and James Lanier, each 2 meters 24 cm tall. Women are Heather and Heidi Burg (195 cm). Heidi played for the WNBA women's basketball team for the Los Angeles Sparks from 1997-1998.

The shortest twins among men today are John and Greg Rice from the United States, their height is only 86 cm, and among women - American Doreen Williams and Darlene McGregor (125 cm). But the record for short stature belongs to the brothers Matyush and Bele Matina, who were born in Hungary and moved to the United States. Their height in adulthood was 51 cm.

The least weighed at birth were Anna Faith Sarah (400) and John Alexander (430) Morrisons. They were born in Canada on January 14, 1994. Before them, Roshan Marelin (490) and Melanie Louise Gray (born in Australia in 1993) had the flyweight.

The twins who were born to Mrs. Haskin on February 20, 1924 in Arkansas had the greatest birth weight - together the babies weighed 12.5 kg.

The heaviest twins in adulthood are Billy and Benny McCrey (born December 7, 1946), weighing 337 kg. and 328 kg. respectively. They developed like normal children until the age of 6 and began to put on a lot of weight after they got rubella. Billy died in a car accident in 1979.

The record for life expectancy among female twins belongs to Japanese women Kin Narita and Jin Kani, who were born on August 1, 1892 in Nagoya. Keane died on January 23, 2000 from cardiac arrest at the age of 107. (By the way, in Japanese, their names mean: Kin - gold, Jin - silver). Women managed to live in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.
The brothers Eli Shadrak and John Meshark Phillips, who were born on February 14, 1803 in Virginia, lived the longest of all men. Eli passed away when he was 108 years and 9 days old.
Of the currently living male twins, the oldest are Lee and Sam DeSpane from Kentucky, who celebrated their 98th birthday on January 13, 2000.
Among women, Gertrude Blesingheim and Pearl Dew from Arkansas hold the palm. The sisters were born on July 27, 1899 and are now 101 years old.

The youngest mother of twins was British citizen Nicola Dougherty, who gave birth to the girls Courtney and Caitlin on April 20, 1997, when she was 14 years old. Her compatriot James Sutton became the father of twins Leah and Louise at the age of 13 (his mother was his 17-year-old girlfriend). It happened in 1999.

The twins Iris Jones and Aro Campbell have not seen each other for the longest time. They were separated on January 13, 1914, and the meeting took place 75 years later, in 1989.

The most similar twins in the world are John and William Riff from Pennsylvania. From 1957 to 1996, they won the title of "Most Alike" 22 times in the Identical Twins Competition.

The biggest difference in height between twins was recorded between Don Coeler and his sister. Both were born in Denton, Montana in 1925. Don began to grow abnormally quickly at the age of 10, and by the end of his life (1981) he was 2m 50cm tall. (there was only one person above him in the 20th century). The height of his sister was 1 m. 75 cm., I.e. the difference in height was 75 cm.

The oldest mother of the twins is named Lin Fu-Mei. She is from Taiwan. She gave birth to twins when she was 59 years old. Jody Cates from USA gave birth to twins at 58 years old.

The most famous of the Siamese twins are Chang and Eng Bankers (11.05.1811-17.01.1874). They were married to sisters Sarah and Adelaide Yates of North Carolina and toured with the Barnum & Bailey Circus. They had 21 children. They lived 63 years and 8 months, which is the record for life expectancy among Siamese twins. Read more about their life story here….

On November 19, 1997, seven twins were born to the McCogay family from Iowa (USA): Kenneth Robert (1475), Alexis May (1220), Natalie Sue (1190), Chelsea Ann (1050), Brandon James (1305) , Nathan Roy (1445) and Joel Stephen (1335).

The first case of a successful birth of eight twins was recorded in Houston (Texas) on December 20, 1998. Parents - Nkem Chukwu (mother) and Hayk Luis Udi (father). Despite excellent medical care, the smallest of the Oder children (the name means "My life belongs to God") died on December 27, on the 7th day of her life. All children were given the names of the Ibo tribe (Nigeria), where the parents come from. The total weight of the children at birth was just over 4.5 kg. On the site you can find the latest information about the health of the "eight".
Another 9 cases of the birth of eight children were recorded at the same time, but there were never without the deaths of at least two babies during childbirth.

There are known cases of pregnancies well, very multiple.
However, in none of the cases it was never possible to save all the children: either all those born died during childbirth or in the first hours after them, or the mother agreed to medical intervention in order to leave 2 to 4 children in the womb, or miscarriages occurred ...
The largest number of births during one birth was recorded in Brazil on April 22, 1946 (2 boys and 8 girls), but it is not known whether any of the children survived, just as the fate of the other two "ten" is unknown (in Spain in 1924 and in China in 1936.)
Zoe Eftstatiu, a Cypriot woman, conceived 11 children at the age of 23 (in 1996), after undergoing a course of hormonal treatment. She agreed to keep 4 children out of 11, but the outcome of the pregnancy is unknown.
In 1988, in Switzerland, a woman could not bear 12 children. She had a miscarriage.
On July 22, 1971, 15 embryos (10 girls and 5 boys) were removed from the womb of a 35-year-old woman from Rome.

Indian twins puzzled scientists

In a village located in the north of the Indian state of Kerala, 204 pairs of twins live.

In total, about two thousand families live here. These people do not follow a unique diet, are not exposed to chemicals, and do not take fertility drugs. Nevertheless, there are about 45 twin births per 1,000 births - about 6 times the world average. Moreover, it is known that local women who get married far from their native village still often bring twins.

According to local doctor Krishnan Shribiju, the number of twins increases over time. The oldest twins in the village, Pathummakutti and Kunhipathutti, are 65 years old.

Scientists cannot yet explain this phenomenon. Krishnan Sribiju notes that all the factors that lead to the appearance of twins, which are known to modern medicine, do not work here. In his opinion, this may somehow be related to the local water.

Most local twins are fraternal, which means that at conception, two eggs were fertilized at once.

9 pairs of twins and several triplets pose for Reuters.
According to another specialist from the Pennsylvania Institute, James Airoldi, the situation in India may be associated with a similar one in the United States, where the number of twin births has increased dramatically over the past few decades.

The number of twins born in the United States from 1980 to 2003 increased by 65 percent, and the number of three or more children born has quadrupled from the same period in 1980. Today, more than 3 percent of children born in the United States are not born alone, mostly twins.
Reasons vary from increasingly widely used methods of artificial insemination before pregnancy for women at a later age, who are more likely to have twins.

By nature, a woman's chances of getting pregnant with more than one child is 1.5 percent out of 100. But when using artificial insemination methods, the chances increase to 25 percent.

There are, however, other ways of conceiving twins, although not proven by science:
Folic acid.
Some argue that vitamin B supplementation can increase your chances of conceiving twins. "There is some scientific explanation for this," notes Airoldi. "Indeed, people who supplement with folic acid are more likely to conceive twins." In any case, doctors always recommend that pregnant women take this type of supplement as it helps protect the developing baby's brain and spinal cord.

Cassava root
Experts believe that the root of this tuber is responsible for a huge number of twins in one of the cities in West Africa, where the birth rate of twins is 4 times higher than in the rest of the world. The element found in the root of this plant, as well as in the blood of local women, is thought to cause more than one egg to fertilize. However, Airoldi does not support this theory.
The weight
Many scientists are inclined to believe that women who have a small amount of excess weight are more likely to conceive twins. There is no scientific evidence for this statement yet.
Breast-feeding
If a woman becomes pregnant again while breastfeeding, which is abnormal for biological reasons, her chances of having twins are greatly increased. This is explained as follows: after childbirth, the level of the female hormone estrogen decreases sharply, and during breastfeeding, the level of follicle-stimulating hormone (it is responsible for the formation of eggs) rises sharply. As a result, the chances of conceiving twins are also increased.
Milk
A 2006 study by the Journal of Reproductive Medicine found that women who drink milk five times more often than non-drinkers give birth to twins. Researchers attribute this to an increase in the woman's blood levels of hormones that release insulin, which increases ovarian sensitivity.
Height
Another study found that tall mothers were more likely to conceive and have twins than short ones.
Twins can be identical (when an egg divides into two fetuses during growth) or fraternal (two eggs are fertilized by two different sperm). Around the world, the birth rate of identical twins has remained unchanged at about 4 or 5 per 1000 newborns. But the number of fraternal twins born, which varies by nation, has increased slightly, and in general they are more common.

Like other siblings, fraternal twins can be of different sexes, and in most cases are more unlike each other than regular siblings born at different times.

They wanted a third ...

Twin brothers and twin sisters

Spouses Tracey and Dawood Beijban (Great Britain) had all four children on the same day - on February 27, 2011, twin daughters Dolci and Elysia, and on February 27, 2007, twin sons Diego and Armani were born.
Tracy is 34 years old, now she is a student, studying to be a psychologist.
“I know I’m very lucky, because I have four amazing children,” says Tracy. - And it is so rare that all children were born on the same day.
Mr. Badgeban works in a supermarket. And now she is trying to earn more money in order to arrange a grandiose holiday next year on February 27! The father of the family has to work a lot, but he nevertheless finds time to help his wife and honestly gets up at night with the kids.

More photos

Gemini have a lot to talk about at any age ...

This is 5 months. Silence in the beginning.

This is 10 months old

Jonathon (left) and Garrett (right) Bath

Peyton (left), Brennan (right) laugh while looking at each other. They are 4 months old.

Hello dear blog readers. Again, I am glad to welcome you on the pages of this resource. I get a lot of questions from women who are just planning their pregnancy. Many are interested to know if twins are inherited through which line? What other conditions will add to the chances of a "double" pregnancy? What needs to be done to have twins?

If we turn to history, we see the ambiguous attitude of different peoples to the birth of twins.

The Inca tribes revered male twins as the sons of the god of Lightning. And among the ancient Indians and aborigines of South America, when twins were born, this was considered proof of the wife's infidelity and her connection with an unclean spirit.

The North American Indians treated the twins very tenderly and respectfully, accepting them as a gift from the gods. But the ancient inhabitants of Japan, the aions, were afraid to get infected from such women and were expelled from the tribe.

Multiple pregnancy "virus"

With the development of science, it became clear that it was impossible to contract multiple pregnancies, as the Aions thought. Let's find out?

1. The greatest influence is exerted by the genetic factor - I will talk about this in more detail below;
2. The mother is about 35 years old. The likelihood gradually rises from puberty and peaks at around 35, then slowly declines;
3. Repeated childbirth;
4. Mom's nationality. Who can have twins more often than others? In the first place - black women, then white, then Asians. If you live in Nigeria, you are 10 times more likely to have twins than a mom from China;
5. Nutrition - it has been noticed that twins are born more often among the fair sex. An interesting fact is also that the champions in the number of twins from Nigeria consume yams. This vegetable contains a large amount of a special substance similar to the female hormone estrogen;
6. Time of conception - most often double fertilization occurs in spring or summer. The length of daylight hours directly affects the production of gonadotropin, which enhances the work of the ovaries;
7. Stop taking hormonal drugs;
8. Passage of the now popular method of conception of children "from a test tube" (IVF).

It is important that all these factors only affect the likelihood of having twins among fraternal twins. In identical ones, it is constant and amounts to 3 cases per 1000 pregnancies.

Where do twins come from?

When a fertilized egg divides into two (three, etc.) equal parts, identical twins appear. The likelihood of such pregnancy is not inherited. This is very similar to the cloning process. Their fabrics are identical in all respects.

There is no scientifically proven theory why a monozygote is divided into several parts, and two embryos are formed.

Where do twins come from?

Fraternal twins result from the ability of the uterus to produce multiple eggs at the same time. That is, these are just brothers and sisters born at the same time. The reason for this ability lies in the hyperovulation gene.

If a mother has twins, then her chances of having a multiple pregnancy are about twice that of an ordinary woman. She is 3-4 times more likely to give birth to twins after twins. For example, Madalene Granate from Italy gave birth to triplets 15 times.

It is curious, but facts are known when, during a dizygotic pregnancy, completely different men were the fathers of twins. It sounds incredible though. It's just that the fusion of the male and female cells happened on different days.

So, one American woman, being married to a white man, fell in love with a black handsome man. Surprisingly, the woman became pregnant by both men and gave birth to two boys, one white and one black.

The difference between two fertilizations is usually no more than 7 days, because after this period, the woman's hormonal background will not allow another fertilized egg to be implanted.

Some women believe that the ovaries take turns functioning. In fact, one of them can ovulate several cycles in a row, or both ovaries at the same time. There may be several waves of ovulation with a time difference of no more than 7 days.

Heredity

The genetic factor most of all affects the likelihood of becoming a double mom. Where do the legs grow from in the myth that the gene for hyperovulation is transmitted through the female line?

There is no doubt that only the female body has the ability to ovulate. In this case, nothing depends on the man. And if he himself is from twins, only his daughter can have a multiple pregnancy.

The combination and pattern of mother and father has a great influence. How many generations does it take? If the grandmother had a multiple pregnancy, then the granddaughter has a great chance of giving birth to twins, that is, after a generation. But this theory has not yet received scientific confirmation.

There are 3 hypotheses about how a man can influence the birth of twins:

1. The semen may contain special enzymatic substances that break the egg into several parts. This concept runs counter to the notion that the ability to conceive twins only passes through the female line.
2. Disorders in the mother's RNA that lead to mutations in developing cells.
3. Changes at the level of genes in the embryo can make the other half repel, considering it foreign. As a result, two babies are formed.

I hope this information was useful, and you have fewer "blank spots" in this thread. If you have any questions, please contact me in the comments. Don't forget to subscribe to updates.

Goodbye!

Always yours, Anna Tikhomirova