Believe you might be carrying more than one baby? Try to find these prospective twin pregnancy symptoms and signs.
Like many women, I first discovered I was pregnant when my home pregnancy test was favorable. To validate the results, I reallied going to my doctor for a blood draw. The next day, he called and stated something I’ll never forget: “Yes, you’re pregnant. In reality, your hormone levels are so high, we just don’t know how many remain in there.”
Early Signs That You’re Pregnant with Twins
Some first signs of twin pregnancy are not physical symptoms at all but are habits and heredity associated. If you understand your history, you have a better chance at guessing if you might ever have twins.
- IVF: in vitro fertilization. While IVF does not guarantee a twin pregnancy, you are more likely to be carrying twins if you got IVF treatments to become pregnant. In normal populations, twin births happen in around 1 in 90 pregnancies. IVF.com notes that IVF pregnancies result in twin births about 25 percent of the time.
- Family history. Seeing twins on your family tree increases your odds of becoming pregnant with twins yourself.
- Age. Women over thirty are more likely to twins, but they are likewise most likely to have IVF. So far, research studies have not separated the two distinctions to see if IVF is the cause of the increase in twin pregnancies. Still, being over thirty makes you most likely statistically to have twins.
- Prior pregnancy. If you have been pregnant before, you are most likely to develop twins than if you are pregnant a very first time. This is particularly true if you currently have a set of multiples.
- Race. African-American women develop more twins than any other race.
Physical Symptoms of Twin Pregnancies
The majority of the common first signs of twin pregnancy vary bit from the first signs of a singleton pregnancy. The primary difference is typically the effect or intensity of the pregnancy symptoms.
Your symptoms might be overemphasized due to the fact that a woman bring twins produces more pregnancy hormones than a woman carrying one baby. More hormones can equate to intensified symptoms. Therefore the frequent urination, fatigue, early morning illness, and breast aches of a single baby pregnancy may be two-fold in a twin pregnancy. Some research has kept in mind that mothers bring twins frequently have severe morning sickness. Increased levels of the hormone hCG and the protein particle alpha-fetoprotein are more common during twin pregnancies.
However, the most crucial thing to understand is that twins or not, each pregnancy is distinct. Additional morning illness, being more tired, or having great deals of mood swings might or might not be connected to a twin pregnancy. If your pregnancy symptoms seem severe, always make a consultation with your care supplier.
Rapid weight gain is another common sign of a multiple pregnancy. The majority of women gain weight slower in the first trimester, while a woman bring twins may quickly gain weight, according to iytmed.com. Your doctor or midwife can inform if you’re bigger than average, and possibly carrying twins, based on the size of your uterus, body weight by scale, and by measuring around your belly.
Obviously, among the best ways to inform if you’re bring twins is if your care company and you can hear two heartbeats at your check-ups. Normally by about 12 weeks, you’ll hear the double heartbeat. Often an early ultrasound to look for multiple fetuses can work too, but heartbeat sounds are more reliable.
Although women anticipating twins and multiples may experience a varied range of symptoms– much like women with singleton pregnancies do– there are some early signs that can indicate you’re carrying more than one baby.
Blood test results
As in my case, elevated levels of the hormone hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) in the blood may indicate that you’re pregnant with twins. If these numbers seem to spike in an early test, you could be having more than one baby– but it’s not definitive.
” Twin pregnancies frequently have increased blood hCG titers, however so do sometimes singleton pregnancies,” says Amos Grunebaum, M.D., director of obstetrics and the chief of labor and delivery at New York-Presbyterian, a teacher at Weill Cornell Medical College, and a medical health advisor for Fairhaven Health. “There is a large range of typical hCG titers both for twins and singletons, and it’s difficult to be sure it’s twins even when the early hCG titers rise.”
Overstated pregnancy symptoms
When you think about that numerous pregnancy symptoms are related to hormone changes in the expecting woman’s body, it stands to factor that mamas expecting twins– who have much more substantial hormone changes– might experience more severe symptoms.
” When a woman is pregnant with twins, she’s at a greater risk for lots of things taking place, over [one who is pregnant with] singletons,” states Christine Greves, M.D., ob-gyn at Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies in Orlando. “For example, due to the elevated pregnancy hormone bhCG, she may have more symptoms of nausea and vomiting than a woman carrying only one baby.”
In truth, women who are bring twins might be most likely to suffer from the severe variation of early morning sickness called hyperemesis gravidarum, which is when queasiness and vomiting is so severe that a woman might need intravenous fluids and other assistance, Dr. Greves says.
A bigger (earlier!) bump
Although Grunebaum states that a pregnant woman’s increased weight and size can not be used as a conclusive indication of twin pregnancy, many twin mothers say their rapidly growing tummies tipped them off that something might be various about their pregnancies.
In my twin pregnancy, I wore a swimsuit by the swimming pool at the four-month mark, and a stranger informed me she believed I was “huge for just 4 months.” Her bad manners aside, it remained in truth two infants pressing my bump out larger, earlier.
Obviously, while these symptoms of a twin pregnancy may help clue you into your upcoming mom-of-multiples, doctors say there’s no genuine way to be sure till an ultrasound validates it.
” You can think as much as you want, but up until you have the ultrasound evaluation, it’s all just speculation,” says Dr. Grunebaum. Thankfully, the majority of mamas do not need to wait long to understand for sure. “Today, twins can usually be identified as early as six to 7 weeks of the pregnancy,” he adds.
