Sunday, September 5, 2010
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Fun Facts
- There are more than 100,000 multiple-birth children in Canada under 13 years of age and 41,000 multiple-birth children five years of age and under each year.
- More than 4,000 sets of twins are born in Canada each year.
- More than 75 sets of triplets, quadruplets and quintuplets (combined) are born.
- Multiple births in Canada are on the rise: birth of twins has risen 35% (per 100,000 successful pregnancies) between 1974-1990.
- The incidence of triplets has increased almost 300% and quadruplets over 400% between 1974-1990.
- Overall 15-17% of multiple births result from infertility treatments.
- It is estimated that 60% of triplets, 90% of quadruplets and 99% of quintuplets result from infertility treatments.
- Incidence of twins is one in 90 births (without fertility treatments).
- Incidence of triplets is one in 8,100 births (without fertility treatments).
- Incidents of quadruplets is one in 729,000 births (without fertility treatments).
- Incidence of quintuplets is one in 65,610,000 births (without fertility treatments).
- Fraternal (dizygotic) twins/triplets are the result of two/three fertilized eggs.
- Family history, mother's age, number of previous pregnancies, and race are determining factors in the incidence of fraternal multiples.
- Identical (monozygotic) twins/triplets are the same sex, have the same blood types, hair and eye color and chromosomes. They are a result of a single egg splitting after conception. Environmental influences can determine that characteristics such as height, weight, ears, nose, lips are somewhat different. Some monozygotic multiples are told they are fraternal (dizygotic) - only DNA fingerprinting provides conclusive results.
- Fraternal twinning does not necessarily skip a generation.
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