Twin Facts

Some facts about twins:

• It's more likely that your morning sickness will be worse.
• More than 50% of twins are born preterm (before 37 weeks).
• With a single baby, the average delivery is at 40 weeks, with twins it's at 35 weeks.
• A single baby's average birth weight is 7 lbs, twins are 5.5 lbs on average.
• You're twice as likely to get preeclampsia with twins
• You're more likely to have gestational diabetes with a twin pregnancy.
• One twin can be much smaller than the other because of placenta problems or because of twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (when identical twins share a placenta and the twins pass blood between each other, making it uneven).
• It's healthy to gain 25-35 lbs with a singleton pregnancy, but with twins 37-54 lbs is healthy. I need to be gaining 1 lb per week in the first half of pregnancy, and more than 1 lb per week in the second half. Yikes.
• Because it's less likely for both twins to be head-down, C-section births are much more common with twins.

Now do you know why I'm a little stressed out?

Credit: Your Pregnancy and Childbirth: Month to Month, Fifth Edition