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Show: January 15, 2012:
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Did You Know?: Twin Births Double
Host: Jeremy Shere, PhD
Did you Know? is presented by Wishard Health Services, becoming Eskenazi Health in 2014.
You may have noticed that more parents are having twins these days. But did you know that twin births in the United States have more than doubled over the past 30 years?
Older moms are driving the trend. For women in their mid to late 30's, twin birth have increased 100% since the 1980s. For moms 40 and over, twin births rose by a whopping 200%, according to the CDC. And even younger moms in their 20's and early 30's are having more twins.
One culprit may be the birth control pill. There’s some evidence that women are more likely to conceive twins right after getting off the pill. But experts says that fertility treatments like in-vitro fertilization are the main cause. Because such treatments typically involve implanting a handful of frozen embryos in the hopes that one will develop in the womb, there’s always a chance that more than one will develop. And so … twins.
And now you know.
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Did you Know is presented by Wishard Health Services, becoming Eskenazi Health in 2014.
Additional Resources:
- Find details on the twin birth rate at the Centers for Disease Control.
