Is it possible i'm a twin?

Question

Twins run in my family. My mom's grandma had a twin. none of her 3 kids were twins. None of their kids were twins. My mom and her brothers were not twins. Is it possible that I had a twin that died at birth? My mom said that she bleed a lot when I was inside of her. My mom's cousins are twins. My dad's grandma had twins that died at birth.

Answer 1

I don't know how common it is, but my husband is in a similar situation. His mom had a miscarriage around 5 months gestation. Eventhough she had a d and c, she continued to have pregnancy symptoms. Two months later she went back to the doc and found out she was still pregnant!! The only thing they could figure is that he was a fraternal twin that had implanted up high in the uterus and was missed by the d and c. Thank God!

My father actually had a twin that died at birth in 1931. He was never told. I actually found out when I looked at his original birth certificate. If you had a twin that died at birth, it would show it. Look for the type of birth (singleton or multiple-twin, triplet, etc) and you'll know if there was a twin at birth, whether they survived or not. It has to be documented if they are carried long enough to be born.

And of course the third way of having a twin that didn't survive is the forementioned absorbtion. I personally don't have any experience with it, but I know it's relatively common. When one twin doesn't thrive, the healthy twin absorbs the nutrients of the undeveloped fetus.

Generally, twins skip generations, especially when they are common in the family. If there is only one or two sets over two or three generations (following the same side of the family-take into consideration any twin tendencies that are married into it), the chances are slim that you will see a set pattern.

I hope this helps!! Blessings

Answer 2

you know I have also wondered the same thing. Have you ever had any surgeries done? Have they ever looked at your organs? When I was 17 they did a surgery to take a cyst off my fallopian tube and they used a scope so they looked around my abdominal cavity. I have two spleens. They believe that I was a twin and that the twin died very young in the pregnancy so I absorbed it. If you have had any surgeries done you can tell if you are a twin or not, if you have extra body parts, organs. Also My mom didnt have an untrasound until 7 months because the my heartbeat was odd and they wanted to make sure I was ok. So they said I could have absorbed the other baby and they would have never known. There is no deffinate way to tell. You can ask your mom and if she has no idea then you will never find out, some people just bleed when they are pregnant. Good Luck!!!

Answer 3

While the first two answers address twin issues that are not especially common (especially the latter), the fact is that yes, your mother's pregnancy could have started as a twin pregnancy. It's believed that there are many many more twin pregnancies than there are twin births; the "vanishing twin" is not at all uncommon, when one of the twins stops developing or dies very early on. Often this happens before the mother or doctor would have detected it as a twin pregnancy to begin with; other times the fact that it's a multiple pregnancy is already known. It's very common, so really, any one of us could be a twin, in that respect. However, it is also common to experience bleeding in pregnancy; I would also think that if your mom experienced significant bleeding she would have seen her doctor about it, and if it was a twin pregnancy it would have been detected at that point. There are a lot of things that could cause bleeding during pregnancy, and it's very common to have what's called a subchorionic hemmoraghe/bleed, which is when a pocket of blood forms in the uterus; bleeding from that can be significant and long lasting, too. In fact, in a vanishing twin situation, it's more likely that the twin would be reabsorbed (usually into the mother's body, sometimes into the other twin's body) without any bleeding.

The incidence of twins in your father's family wouldn't have any bearing on the incidence of fraternal twinning, in any event; that happens with the woman releases multiple eggs during ovulation, and that trait is something that comes down through the women. If you had a fraternal twin it would have been because your mother released more than one egg, and your father (and his family) wouldn't have anything to do with it. As for identical twins: scientists still generally describe ID twinning as a random event for which family history isn't relevant, but there's enough anecdotal evidence to the contrary to (in my opinion) conclude that the jury is still very much out on that one.

Answer 4

I saw a show one time about people who were also their twin. Their body had absorbed the fetus of the other one in the womb. The people actually had two different DNA's. I can't remember what they were called. I'm sorry. I'm sure that would be more helpful. Anyway, it was just bizarre. If you feel like you are a twin it's very possible that you are. Only God can know for sure at this point. Maybe you'll get a little extra surprise in Heaven when you get there - meeting your unknown twin!