Doublin

Parents
share trials
and tribulations
of having
and raising twins.

TH E DE TRO IT J E WIS H N EWS

JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR STAFF WRITER

BO

d Steven Schreiber could not agree on
and
whether they should find out the sex of their unborn
child.
The gender of their first child, Jason, had been a
surprise. But what the heck, she thought. Since
this would be their second child, they might as well
prepare.
So, the Schreibers devised a system. During
the ultrasound in her fifth month of pregnancy,
they asked the technician to write the gender down on a
piece of paper and seal it in an envelope. When they fi-
nally could agree, the Schreibers would either open the
envelope or bum it.
But the technician threw them a curve.
"Do multiple births run in your family?" she asked the
expectant parents. "Are there any twins you are related
to?"
"Our mouths dropped right to the floor," said Ms.
Schreiber, recalling the moment.
Suddenly the sex question didn't seem that important.
Welcome to the wonderful world of twins. Double trou-
ble. Dynamic duos. Perfect pairs. Call it what you want
but it is still twinhood, a special event that occurs in one
of every 80 live births in America.
"Twins," a word that strikes fear in the hearts of near-
ly all expectant couples, are not always trouble. In fact,
most parents say that if you can just get through the first
few years alive, they are actually quite fun.
But there is no question about it. Twins are work.
It all begins with conception.
In a single birth, one egg is fertilized, plants itself on
the uterine wall and develops into a single child, God will-
ing.
But with twins, even conception is special.
A twin pregnancy occurs because either two eggs are
fertilized or one fertilized egg splits in two. The former
produces fraternal twins which come in three combina-
tions: girl-girl, boy-boy and boy-girl. The latter produces
identical twins, either two boys or two girls who share the
same features.
Twins don't happen to everyone. People with a history
of twins in the family are more prone to have them as are
women who get pregnant shortly after discontinuing birth
control pills, women who take fertility drugs, women over

