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Are multiple births more common today?
Do humans have multiple births?
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Multiple births in humans are the exception and can be exceptionally rare in the largest mammals.
Dec 20, 2020 · A multiple pregnancy is a pregnancy where you’re carrying more than one baby at a time. If you’re carrying two babies, they are called twins. Three babies that are carried during one pregnancy are called triplets. You can also carry more than three babies at one time (high-order multiples).
Multiple births are much more common today than they were in the past. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, the twin birth rate has increased by over 75% since 1980, and triplet, quadruplet, and high-order multiple births have increased at an even higher rate.
- If two or more babies grow in a woman’s uterus at the same time, they’re known as “multiples.” Sometimes they look exactly alike -- identical -- and sometimes they don’t look any more alike than typical siblings -- fraternal.
- A fertilized egg is made with one egg and one sperm. If it splits in two, which happens sometimes, you have identical twins. If one of those eggs separates again, you’ll have identical triplets, and so on.
- Sometimes, more than one egg comes out of a woman’s ovary in a single month. If each one is fertilized by different sperm, fraternal multiples happen.
- If a woman has two or more eggs during their fertility window, it’s possible that each one could be fertilized at different times -- even by different men.
Multiple birth, the delivery of more than one offspring in a single birth event. In most mammals the litter size is fairly constant and is roughly correlated with features such as body size, gestation period, type of uterus, and teat number. Among primates, humans included, multiple births are exceptional.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the twin birth rate has risen 70% since 1980. It is now 32.6 per 1,000 live births. The birth rate for triplets and other higher-order multiples rose dramatically.
Multiple pregnancy or “multiples” is having more than one fetus in your uterus during a pregnancy. Multiple pregnancies are considered rare, and high-order multiples (triplets or more) are even more rare. However, odds for multiple pregnancies increase with fertility therapies.
