The likelihood of conceiving twins

If only it were that easy

Being pregnant is considered to be relatively cool. The woman blooms with health, she glows and seems happy at the prospect of having a child. People often feel softened towards a pregnant woman for the mere fact that she  is carrying the future in her uterus. 

From being cool we move on to the not so cool part. It can be a bother! You get morning sickness, unless you're one of the few who don't; you get all these cravings; the baby kicks; you can't sleep on your tummy and then comes the birthing process. The one part woman hate the most. From what I've heard it's painful except for the rare few who were made for popping out babies.

I come from a family of three girls and one day I want to have about 2 babies. In separate pregnancies... I think not. My grandmother conceived and miscarried two sets of twins and I was a twin except that he/she didn't develop or maybe just maybe.. in the womb I was a psycho serial killer and I tortured my twin for nine months by taking nutrients meant for 'it' and thus.. killed it. From this family history, I'm hoping there is the likelihood that I'd conceive twins. Having a twin pregnancy doubles all the risks associated with a pregnancy. Despite this, I still want to have twins. So here's some stuff that has been researched about conceiving twins.

1. Family History - If twins run in your family then there's a likelihood that you have a hyperovulation gene.

2. Grow or gain weight - I'm not sure how pleased I am with this but the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology correlate a BMI of 30 and higher with conceiving twins. Trust the most obese place in the world to find something like this. My BMI is 23.1 and I fall into the normal weight category. There's no way I'm going to have a BMI of 30. I would NEVER gain that sort of weight for the sake of twins.

3. Wait til you're older - Apparently older people are more likely to conceive twins because ovulation accelerates as the biological clock ticks away. Early menopause runs in my family so while women are more likely to conceive twins over the age of 45, kicking into pre-menopause in the latter 30s early 40s isn't going to work out for me. I'll give it a shot at conceiving children in my early early 30s.

4. Diet - Eating yams and dairy is supposed to increase your chances. A study (only one, seriously?) found that consuming dairy increases your chances by five of conceiving twins. Root vegetables such as yam and sweet potato have been found to contain a chemical that causes hyperovulation. I love sweet potatoes.. what a coincidence!

5. Get pregnant on the pill - really? something that's supposed to prevent pregnancy and you think I'd try and get pregnant on it? I want healthy babies, not seriously altered chemically ones. Having said that about chemical altering, women should detoxify their bodies about a year or two before becoming pregnant because the crap your eat still bounces around in there even when you think it's gone.

6. Fertility drugs - that's a good idea but you could end up having more than just twins and unless you want to take those chances and end up like Jon & Kate plus 8, be my guest.

7. Get lucky - For some reason the song by Moldova in the 2011 Eurovision comes to mind. So yes, you can get lucky! and by some miracle have twins. I'm not interested in getting lucky.

So, if you're interested in having twins like me :) then your best shot really is to have the hyperovulation gene. I'll increase those chances by waiting til I get older but that's about it.