You’re at the mall and you spot a set of twins. At the grocery store, you see triplets. News reports tell you about a Long Island woman who has given birth to six babies at once.
There was a time when such occurrences were rare, more a spectacle or a media event.
But things are changing. More couples are turning to fertility drugs, and more women are putting off having children until their 30s, two practices that increase the chances of conceiving more than one baby at a time. The number of twins, triplets, quadruplets and other sets of babies is increasing dramatically.
“When my twins were born 21 years ago it was a big thing,” said Lois Gallmeyer, executive secretary for the National Mothers of Multiples Clubs Inc. “Now it’s not so unusual.”
Not surprisingly, the boom in twins and triplets has manufacturers scrambling to fill a need for products geared towards multiples. Today it’s easier to find double strollers and support groups and books on the subject than it was even a decade ago. And more parents who have gone through the same event are sharing their experiences.
“There’s so much more out there for us than when my kids were coming up,” said Gallmeyer, who has seen the membership of her club grow from 8,000 to 21,000 over the last 12 years. “It’s easier to raise multiples now.”
The National Center for Health Statistics confirms the rise in twins, triplets and more.
About 1 in 90 pregnancies in the United States, doctors say, include multiple fetuses, primarily non-identical twins. African-American women have the highest chances of giving birth to twins, followed by East Indian women, Caucasians and Asians.
Between 1980 and 1994, births of sets of twins jumped 42 percent, from 68,339 to 97,064. Births of triplets or more rose from 1,337 to 4,594–an increase of 214 percent.
Dr. Bruce Meyer, director of maternal-fetal medicine at the State University of New York at Stonybrook on Long Island, N.Y., is among those in the medical field contributing to the multiple-baby boom.
Studies show that nearly two-thirds of multiples were likely conceived as a result of fertility procedures, while nearly one-third were born to mothers who got pregnant between ages 35 and 39. After age 40, multiple births tend to drop off.
Last month, Meyer helped deliver a set of sextuplets at the New York hospital–four boys and two girls–all doing fine.
“There’s no question we’re seeing many more multiple gestations,” said Meyer, who is also a member of an obstetric and gynecology practice that specializes in multiple births. “We’re seeing it because technology is allowing us to see it.”
It’s not just the number of multiple pregnancies and births that are up. New medical technology means the survival rate of multiples is higher than it once was, even for babies born extremely prematurely.
Former U.S. Rep. Blanche L. Lincoln, 36, of Arkansas figures age played a part in the conception of her now 10-month-old twins, Bennett and Reese.
She may be right. According to medical experts, women in their mid- to late 30s have been known to release more than one egg during a monthly ovulation cycle. In most cases, this would lead to a single birth. But in a small number of cases, it leads to multiple births.
Lincoln, who divides her time between child-rearing and public speaking, did not take fertility drugs — which also tend to produce multiple eggs — and has no family history of twins.
“When we decided to have a family, it never occurred to me that we would have twins,” said Lincoln, who opted out of a third term after learning she was carrying twins. “My understanding is that women in their 30s have a higher tendency to produce multiples. I guess that’s what happened to us.”
Her husband, coincidentally, is a fertility specialist.
With the boom in multiple births almost certain to continue, new books like “Multiple Blessings” are detailing everything from what a woman can expect from her twin pregnancy to how to breast-feed two babies at once.
“We encourage our parents to get as organized as they can before the babies come,” said Gallmeyer. “If they have a routine and a schedule, they can eliminate a lot of stress before it starts to build up.”
Tamara Lilly, mother of 14-month-old twins, Thomas and Taylor, said she would be lost without the rigid routine she sticks to daily.
Lilly, of Bowie, Md., believes in duplicates –two diaper bags, two bottle bags, and two sets of car seats. She and her husband, Thomas, share child-care responsibilities. She takes the twins to the baby-sitter on weekdays; he picks them up. She gives them baths. He dresses them.
“I’m a very structured person who needs a lot of order to function,” said Lilly, an auditor for the federal government in Washington. “We get by on tight schedules and clearly defined responsibilities.”
