Mothers of Twins May Live Longer

Pregnancy Over 40 and Twins

I can't tell you how many sets of twins we know.  Some of it is probably due to the use of fertility treatments and some of it may just be that older women tend to have multiple births even without intervention. 

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There are those that think the more kids you have, the more stress you encounter in life which may shorten your life span. This isn't necessarily true. Mothers of twins certainly deal with their share of stress, but they may actually live longer. Read more:

Study co-author Ken Smith said: "The prevailing view is that the burden of childbearing on women is heavier with twins. But we found the opposite." The findings, published in the journal "Proceedings of the Royal Society B", were based on a population of "naturally healthy" women in Utah during the 1800s, before reliable birth control and infertility treatments were available.

Researchers used family records of 58,786 women, 4,603 of whom had at least one set of twins. All the women, who were born between 1807 and 1899, were at least 50 years old so their full reproductive years were covered.

It is not known if the research applies to women who have twins through IVF. The findings do not come as a surprise to Katherine Wilding from Hertford, who has three-year-old twins Beatrice and Oliver.

She said: "Meeting other twin mums and seeing how hard they work has made me think how we have to be almost superwomen with all we have to do. Now research shows that in some ways it's true."

from: 
thisislondon.co.uk

More Twin Pregnancies? It's Not Just IVF

Twin Pregnancies Over 40, Not Just Age or Fertility Treatments

Most people automatically assume that the rise in twin pregnancies is due to the rise in the number of couples using assisted reproduction to conceive.
 However, according to the article below, the increase in twin pregnancies may also be because women in general are producing healthier embryos due to better nutrition. Read more:


The belief that IVF is behind the steady increase in the numbers of twins born over the past thirty years was challenged yesterday by a scientist speaking at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology conference. Professor Robert Jansen, Medical Director of Sydney IVF in Australia, said that his research had shown that improved nutrition, both maternal and in the lab (in the case of IVF), was producing better and stronger embryos.

See My Series On Foods For Fertility (www.getpregnantover40.com)

"Over the last 100 years there has been an increase in identical twinning through the division of the embryo into two, even without IVF", said Jansen, "and with the move to single embryo transfer with IVF this trend is obviously set to continue." He added that the present rate of identical twinning with IVF is between one-in-a-hundred and one-in-fifty, a little over twice the rate involved when getting pregnant naturally. 
from: 
aphroditewomenshealth.com