One is Nice, Two is Fun and Three is Crowded!

Twins and other multiples are much more likely than single babies to be born early. According to statistics from the UK, 60% of all twins were born prematurely, compared to 11% of single babies. And 12% of these twins were born very prematurely i.e. before 32 weeks of gestation, compared to about 2% of single babies. Singleton babies are usually carried for about 40 weeks and tend to have normal birth weights.

At least half of twins are born before 37 weeks and with low birth weights, making them at high risk of serious health problems and death. Many are born before 35 weeks, when they often need neonatal care. Their birth weight is around 800–1000g less than singletons. Low birth weight may also results in hearing or vision loss.

Twins also have higher risk of anemia or low hemoglobin during pregnancy. Hemoglobin carries oxygen, and if the oxygen is low, it will affect the growth of the baby in the womb. The women will also have a higher risk of bleeding following delivery. Bleeding can also takes place before delivery.

Emotional risk tends to be higher in those with twins. It can be costly emotional roller coaster to go through IVF treatment but having premature babies can add to the psychological burden. Hence their post natal recovery can be slow leading to postnatal depression or post natal blues.

During birth, mothers of twins are more likely to require intervention, more likely to experience serious problems and more likely to die than mothers of singletons.

Caesarean is common among twin births. Most women would request for Caesarean as generally they would not like to go through the risk of normal labor .Other reasons as to why Caesarean increases is because of higher risk of placenta praevia(low lying placenta), malposition of the first twins such as breech and the presence of medical conditions such as gestational diabetes and pregnancy induced hypertension.