What are the chances of getting pregnant with multiples naturally?

Question

and what is the highest number of babies a woman can concieve naturally in one pregnancy? (without any artificial fertility)

Answer 1

1 in 80 for twins (it used to be 1 in 90, but more twins are surviving due to advanced technology). The highest number of naturally conceived babies, where there were survivors is 6. There are instances of more fetuses, but most are due to fertility drugs.

The most common causes of naturally occurring multiples are:

Genetics - runs in your family OR (and very rarely) husband has enzyme that causes egg to split resulting in identicals.
Age - women over 36 have higher rates of multiples.
Race (black women have more twins; Asians have the fewest)
Diet - women in Nigeria have a base diet of African Yams which causes them to throw more eggs per cycle.
Obesity - this is a new stat. Obese women have higher rates of multiples.

Keep in mind that many women become pregnant with twins, but only one survives, while the other dies during very early pregnancy (now known as disappearing twin syndrome).

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

It depends if there is history on your mothers side of fraternal twins or more. Fraternal multiples occur when the mother releases multiple eggs each ovulation cycle.

The odds of having multipe eggs increases if the mother is very young, over 36.

Identical twins are virtually impossible to predict as it's not known what causes the fertilized egg to split. There are incidences of women on IVF who have one embryo implanted which later splits into id twins.

I know of an english woman who had identical sextuplets (6) girls. That was amazing to see., And recently a woman in florida had identical triplets.

I'm the 4th generation in a row to have twins, I am a surviving twin myself (fraternal twin was miscarried at 14wks), the first generation to have both twins survive and my twins are identical.

Answer 4

Chances depend on genetics. Do multiple births run in your family or your husband's family? As for the most a woman can have naturally, I don't know, sorry.