What is the difference between twins and triplets
Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Triplets are three babies carried in the same womb during a single pregnancy. Like twins, triplets and other higher-order multiples can be categorized by their zygosity or degree of genetic similarity.
Though triplets are most commonly fraternal dizygotic or trizygotic , it is possible for triplets to be identical monozygotic. While many people are familiar with the terms "identical" and "fraternal" in describing multiples and use them to describe whether twins or triplets look similar, what these terms actually refer to is how the multiples formed in utero. Monozygotic or identical multiples form from the same egg. In the case of identical twins, the fertilized egg splits in two. In the case of identical triplets, the egg may split just once into three or it may split twice where the egg splits first in two and then one of the two splits again , resulting in three embryos with the same general DNA characteristics.
Monozygotic triplets are always the same sex, either all boys or all girls. Some monozygotic triplets are actually quadruplets where one embryo has vanished or been reabsorbed. Research on the prevalence of monozygotic triplets varies. A case report of a healthy set of spontaneously conceived three identical triplet boys lists the incidence at 1 in , live births.
Most reported cases are conceived through assisted reproductive techniques. That paper noted that only seven other cases of spontaneously conceived identical triplets were known. A paper states the rate of incidence of identical triplets is times more frequent with assisted reproductive techniques than spontaneous conception but is still extremely rare.
A monozygotic triplet pregnancy carries the risks of a monozygotic pregnancy with a shared placenta, plus the additional risks of a triplet pregnancy. A pregnancy of this type could be more likely to encounter problems such as preeclampsia , preterm labor , or transfusion syndrome.
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Urgent Care. Safe Sleep Practices. Pay Your Bill. Financial Assistance. Medical Records. About Us Who We Are. Patient Stories. Get Involved. Health Alerts: Coronavirus. Are they identical? Are they natural? Which one is older? These are some of the all-too-familiar, somewhat invasive and highly personal questions posed by well-intentioned strangers to parents with multiples the world over. A multiple birth occurs when more than one foetus is carried to term in a single pregnancy.
Identical multiples are rarer than fraternal multiples, as they are the result of a single fertilised egg spontaneously splitting and forming two foetuses.
Identical multiples are the same gender and blood type and also have the same hair and eye colour. These are the multiples you often have trouble telling apart.
Fraternal multiples are the result of two or more eggs being fertilised by two different sperm. Fraternal multiples can be different genders and may be no more alike than if they were singleton siblings carried in a single pregnancy and born years apart. Higher order multiple pregnancies involving more than two babies can be fraternal, identical or a mixture of both.