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SALT LAKE CITY -- The number of twins born in the United States has more than doubled over the last three decades.
A new report recently released by the Centers for Disease Control shows the twin birth rate has risen by 76 percent since 1980, with nearly one in every 30 newborn babies coming as a pair. The increase of babies has many looking to see if there is a twin trend.
Utah, too, is on track with the national trend. In the last 30 years, Utah's twin rate has gone from 1.75 percent to 3.08 percent, which is also a 76 percent increase.
Officials with the CDC said a few key contributing factors have led to the increase of twin babies, such as women waiting to have children. Studies have shown that twins are more likely to occur in older mothers. Additionally, the chance of having twins increases if a woman gets pregnant quickly after coming off birth control.
The unintended consequences of increasing multiple birth is not a good thing and one needs to find a way of controlling that.
–Dr. Michael Katz
However, assisted reproductive technology and fertility drugs are accounting for the majority of twins, which can sometimes increase the risk.
"The unintended consequences of increasing multiple birth is not a good thing and one needs to find a way of controlling that," said Dr. Michael Katz of the March of Dimes.
The unintended consequences sometimes attributed to a twin pregnancy include low birth weight and pre-term birth, which has prompted some medical professionals to encourage practitioners to return fewer embryos to the women's uterus.
Although the twin rate has increased over the last three decades, the rate has decreased since 2005.
Email: bwalker@ksl.com
