The US birth statistics are out and New Jersey officially has a new distinction: the highest twin pregnancy rate in the nation (43.1/1000 births).
In fact, the country as a whole has the highest twin rate on record. While some of our patients may find this good news, obstetricians and reproductive medicine specialists see it otherwise.
First the good news about twin pregnancies...
- New Jersey is not the nation's leader in triplets or quadruplets, both of which are many times riskier to mother and babies than twins
- The high rate of twins means many more New Jersey women have access to fertility specialists, since multiple pregnancies are usually the result of infertility treatments
Now, the bad news about twin pregnancies...
- Twin pregnancies are significantly riskier to mother and babies than single gestations
- Virtually all complications of pregnancy from miscarriage and still births to high blood pressure and diabetes are much more common in twin pregnancies.
And now for some even better news...
Twins are unfortunately a risk any time fertility drugs are used or when multiple embryos are put in such as with IVF. New technologies such as IVF with preimplantation genetic screening (PGS) and comprehensive chromosomal screening (CCS) and the Eeva test offer way to treat of couples who suffer from infertility, doing IVF with a single embryo (also called an SET) to minimize multiple births without sacrificing the success rates.