For the most part, twins and multiples share the same birthday. However, depending on the time of day the babies are born and how long the timespan is between each baby's birth, twins can be born on different days.
Twins with different birthdays are rare, with some estimates suggesting the chance of them being born in different years as around one in 2 million. Twins born just 15 minutes apart ended up having separate birthdays in different years - an event that has around a one in two million chance of happening.
In other words, they were not born during the same gestational period. Calling them Irish twins is just an informal way of classifying siblings that are born close together. Some actual twins have different birthdays due to one being born on one day and the other staying in the womb for days or weeks longer.
I had no idea it was even possible to have twins born in different months. For the record, The Guinness Book of World Records says that the longest amount of time between the birth of twins is 90 whole days! This story might not be quite as outrageous, but I think we would all agree that it is quite remarkable.
As IVF techniques improve, more and more families today comprise a set of so-called IVF twins like mine — children born of two eggs fertilised by two sperm at the same time, making them fraternal, or non-identical, twins, but born many years apart.
The term “Irish Twins” refers to siblings born within a year of each other, and it definitely does happen. While birthing two babies in the span of a year has its challenges, there are also many uniquely special benefits to raising siblings close in age.
The longest interval between the birth of twins is 90 days, in the case of Molly and Benjamin West, dizygotic (fraternal) twins born in Baltimore, Maryland, USA to parents Lesa and David West (all USA) on 1 January and 30 March 1996.
Superfecundation is the fertilization of two or more ova from the same cycle by sperm from separate acts of sexual intercourse, which can lead to twin babies from two separate biological fathers.
Multiples are generally born only a few minutes apart. If delivered by cesarian section, the interval between births is usually only a minute, maybe two. The interval is generally longer for vaginal deliveries, ranging from a few minutes to more than an hour.
Although this is quite rare it can happen and it's called superfetation. Two babies are conceived from separate acts in two different cycles. These babies can be from the same father or two different men. When heteropaternal superfecundation occurs, the babies are from different fathers.
Mirror twins, or mirror image twins, is a term used to describe a characteristic of some twins whose features appear asymmetrically—that is, on opposite sides. When these twins are facing each other, it is as if they are looking in a mirror.
A rainbow baby is a child born after the loss of a previous pregnancy or newborn.
Monoamniotic-monochorionic Twins
This is the rarest type of twin, and it means a riskier pregnancy as the babies can get tangled in their own umbilical cords. If you have monoamniotic-monochorionic twins, your healthcare provider will monitor your pregnancy closely.
February 3rd is the only day where no one in history has ever been born. Despite much scientific study, there is no explanation for this phenomena. Historically it has been referred to as “the empty day” or “nobody's birthday”.
Monochorionic Monoamniotic Twins
These types of twins share the same chorion, placenta and amnion. This is the rarest type of twin pregnancy – only affecting 1 in every 100 sets of identical twins – and it comes with a higher risk of complications because the foetuses can get tangled in their umbilical cords.
And because the death rate in the womb is higher for twins than for singleton births, female twins are more common than male twins.
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That's not all, Monga says. Women pregnant with twins complain of more back pain, sleeping difficulties, and heartburn than those who are carrying one child. Being pregnant with twins also carries a higher rate of maternal anemia and a higher rate of postpartum hemorrhage (bleeding) after delivery.
Quintuplets occur naturally in 1 in 55,000,000 births. The first quintuplets known to survive infancy were the identical female Canadian Dionne Quintuplets, born in 1934. Quintuplets are sometimes referred to as "quins" in the UK and "quints" in North America.
As such, the mother of twins is given special treatment and is called Naloongo.
The longest recorded human pregnancy was 375 days, or just over 12 and a half months, according to Guinness World Records. During this pregnancy, a woman named Beulah Hunter gave birth to a healthy baby girl in 1945.
In 99.9% of cases boy/girl twins are non-identical. However, in some extremely rare cases resulting from a genetic mutation, identical twins from an egg and sperm which began as male (XY) can develop into a male / female pair.
In 5% of the MZT cases, the splitting occurs 8-13 days after fertilization, resulting in monochorionic-monoamniotic twins (one placenta and one amniotic sac). Rarely, the splitting occurs after 13 days, resulting in conjoined twins.