Twins, Twins, Everywhere Are Twins
The Bay State is teeming — teeming I tell you — with twins, according to a page one story in the Boston Globe:
“The combination of an unusually large number of pregnancies in older women, who are more likely to have multiples, and a heavy reliance on readily available infertility treatments, which also increases the odds, has propelled Massachusetts to the top: The state has a twin birth rate of 4.5 for every 100 live births, compared with a national rate of 3.2, according to the most recent figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”
What does this mean? Well, sometimes, bad, bad things, according to the article which included quotes from physicians about the dangers of pre-term births (most twins are born early) and the drain multiple births are putting on Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs). Typical stuff. No article on multiples is quite complete without the not-so-subtle bashing of parents of multiples for selfishly pursuing infertility treatments (usually uttered by people with no fertility challenges) and blaming them for hogging hospital resources when they forge ahead with a multiple pregnancy in which babies which could be born early.
As a mother of nearly 10-year-old twins, I have a special loathing for these kinds of articles which start out fine and then go downhill quickly. I’m the first one to acknowledge that twin pregnancies are difficult (though I had a harder time with my singleton pregnancy), that babies born early do sometimes require time in the NICU (as mine did), that twins born very early can suffer from health problems (mine, thankfully, did not). Attempts have been made by physicians administering infertility treatments, as noted in the article, to reduce the number of multiples. All of that is fair game . . . to a point.
But then I read quotes like this one from the chief of newborn medicine at a Boston hospital: “The usual condition is one baby per uterus. That’s the way the system is designed. Mother nature does not take kindly to anything being unusual — even if she created it.”
I’m glad I didn’t give birth to my twins in his hospital where I could benefit from his warm understanding and compassion.
Local mom and author Meredith O'Brien gives you a peek behind the picket fences of modern day parenting. With humor and candor, it's her take on real parenting in the real world.
Well at least John and Kate plus 8 are in PA and not MA. You know infertility treatments have gone haywire when you get sextuplets.
Comment by Angela at mommy bytes — June 17, 2008 @ 10:42 am
How can a rate of 4.5 twins/100 births create such utter panic and chaos? If the average rate is 3.2, then we are talking about roughly ONE extra baby per 100, on average. Oh no, call in the reinforcements! Also, perhaps someone should look at the per capita birth rate in the state versus the national average (which according to the Kaiser Family Foundation is 12.2 births/1,000 population in MA versus a US average of around 14 births/1,000). So even with “all those twins” we still have a lower birth rate in this state.
Comment by Henry — June 17, 2008 @ 2:56 pm
It’s too bad that so many have to voice their negative opinions. For many, getting pregnant with twins happens naturally without any IVF - so should these parents also feel guilty for having 2 babies? I think for those who have never been in a postition of desperately wanting a baby for years, going through treatment and finding out it successful - and then have to decide to terminate one? Which one? How do you choose something like that? You can’t.
Kim@www.raising-twins.com
Comment by Kim — June 18, 2008 @ 2:17 pm