A multiple pregnancy is when you are pregnant with 2 or more babies. This can mean twins, triplets, quadruplets or more.
Most women with a multiple pregnancy have a healthy pregnancy and healthy babies.
In most cases, a dating scan at 11 to 13 weeks will tell if you are pregnant with more than 1 baby. If you are having fertility treatment, you may find out earlier.
Fertility treatments make multiple pregnancy more likely. You are more likely to have twins if there are twins in your family.
How multiple pregnancy differs from a single pregnancy
If you are pregnant with twins or multiple babies, a doctor who specialises in pregnancy and birth (an obstetrician) will take care of you.
You may also need to see a specialist in caring for unborn babies (fetal medicine specialist). This is to do more scans. You need to have extra monitoring and scans if you are having multiple babies.
Your bump will be bigger than if you were having 1 baby.
Labour and birth
Your medical team will recommend that you have your babies in a hospital that has a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). This is because premature labour can be more common with multiple pregnancy.
Your babies are also more likely to be delivered by caesarean section.
During labour and birth there will be more healthcare professionals than usual present.
Complications and multiple pregnancy
There are more risks to having a multiple pregnancy than a single pregnancy. Some complications are more common in a multiple pregnancy.
For example:
Other risks include your babies growing slower than expected.
Premature birth
Most twins and triplets are born prematurely (before 37 weeks).
About 6 in 10 twins are born before 37 weeks. Almost 8 in 10 triplets are born before 35 weeks.
Twins and triplets also have a higher risk of having a low birthweight. Your risk increases if you've given birth prematurely before, or if a cervical length scan found that you have a short cervix.
Breastfeeding and multiple pregnancy
It is possible to breastfeed twins, triplets or more. Your midwife will help guide you.
Breastfeeding twins or triplets
Planning for a multiple pregnancy
Your babies may come early. This might change your plans with work and leave. Consider starting your maternity leave earlier than planned.
When your babies are born, you will be very busy caring for them. Take any help and support you need. Try to establish feeding and sleeping routines early on. This will help you deal with the extra tasks a multiple birth brings.
Types of multiple pregnancy
Common types of multiple pregnancy are:
- identical twins
- non-identical twins
Identical twins happen when 1 fertilised egg splits in 2. Each baby has the same DNA. They will look very alike and be the same sex. About 1 out of 3 twin births in Ireland are identical.
Non-identical twins happen when 2 sperm fertilise 2 eggs at the same time. The babies may be different sexes. They will look more like siblings than twins. About 2 out of 3 twin births are non-identical.
Triplets can be identical or non-identical. Sometimes only 2 of the 3 babies may be identical. Sometimes all 3 babies may be identical.