Despite some couples’ desires, doctors counsel against trying for twins through in vitro fertilization
The debate among in vitro fertilization (IVF) patients and their doctors isn’t about having lots of babies at once. It’s about trying for twins only. Patients who want twins point to the high costs of IVF, their ticking biological clocks, and their frustration and exhaustion from lengthy fertility struggles. They ask, why not have two at a time? “If they get twins, all the better, because whether they had twins or one, it’s still same cost. So if this is it, then let’s just complete the family”. There are people who think twins are “cute,” and people who want two kids but only one pregnancy. “They feel like it’s just very efficient that way,”
But doctors say it’s risky. These are the pros and cons from each side of the debate.
Compared to having one baby, twins and other multiples are more likely to have serious – and even life-threatening – health problems to the babies as well as the mother.
Complications to the babies include early miscarriages, preterm birth, low birth weight, and birth defects to the baby.
The mother is also at increase risk of pregnancy complications like, abnormal placentation such as placenta praevia, pregnancy induced hypertension, diabetes, increased risk of operative delivery, post partem haemorrhage and anaemia. Apart from this the mother may have loss all shape, or form. However, these concerns with multiples are secondary”.
“Sometimes, one just does not understand how bad ‘bad’ can be
