Prepare for trouble, and make it double if you’re expecting, as it turns out that twin births are at an all-time high in the United States.
- 3,988,076 births were registered in the United Stated in 2014
- The odds of having twins has risen by 76% from 1980 to 2009
- In 2014, the odds of having twins were of 33.9 twins per 1000 children
- Triplets, however, are far more common, with 113.5 per 1000 children
- In vitro fertilization is far more likely to yield twins or triplets
The rate for twin births has been steadily increasing since the 1980s, mothers in 2014 having a 76% higher chance of birthing twins than a mother in 1980.
Despite the steady increase, recent years haven’t actually raised the percentage by that much, as 2009 has seen the biggest increase in recent history.
Compared to 2013, 2014 had a .2 increase in the number of twin births, raising the percentage from 33.7 to 33.9.
This, in turn, is caused by an increase in the rate of black twin births, as rates for white and Hispanic twins have leveled out.
For example, in 2014, from 4 million births, 135,336 were twins. For comparison, black women had a twin birth rate of 38 to 40 per 1,000 children, while white women stood at 36.7 and Hispanic women at 24.1.
The authors of the study are based at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, or the CDC, and they seem to know the reason behind the steady increase.
More and more fertility therapies, in vitro fertilizations, and other assisted reproduction technologies are being employed. Additionally, the average birth rate is increasing, and the prevalence of pregnancies in older women has also increased significantly.
For more statistics, the average number of births via assisted reproduction technologies in 2012 was estimated at about 1.5 percent.
Meanwhile, the average age for motherhood increased from 26 to 26.3. This may not seem like that high a growth, but it matters a lot in a situation like this.
According to multiple sources, having a child in your 30s, 40s, and even 50s greatly enhances the chances of getting twins, mostly because of the increasing irregularity of the cycles.
However, the amount of potentially creepy children isn’t the only issue with the increasing twin birth rates.
Twin, triplet, and multiple births pose a much higher health risk to both the mother and the children. Not only are in-vitro births more likely to result in delivery complications, but one out of every two twins and over nine out of every ten triplets born were either preterm or had a low birth weight.
Image source: DeviantArt
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.