Wednesday, May 15, 2019

Everything There Is To Know About Vanishing Twin Syndrome

By Sharon Kelly


There have been many stories about mothers who have been shown to have twins in the first few weeks of their pregnancies only to find out a week later that only one heartbeat is there. When they then check, the doctors have concluded that there really is only one child and the twin disappeared. This is known as the vanishing twin syndrome and is a common condition among pregnant mothers.

Just to give an idea, this is a type of incident wherein one of the children inside the womb would suddenly disappear leaving only one twin to stay there. Now, this would usually happen because of a miscarriage wherein the surviving child would take the placenta and fetal tissue of the one that is gone. In a way, it may actually seem like one child really did disappear from the womb.

As to when this incident usually occurs, it would usually happen some time during the first trimester of the pregnancy and is spotted through ultrasound. The first ultrasound will tell the parents that there are twins in the womb. The next ultrasound will then confirm if one twin disappears which will conclude that the mother had this syndrome.

Some facts to know about this condition is that it happens in around twenty eight percent to thirty percent of pregnancies. In fact, this happens very often in the first parts of pregnancies that many mothers are not even aware if they got this condition or not. It is also possible for a mother to have a miscarriage reading but only have one child inside her womb.

As for the cause of this condition, there really is no concrete conclusion as to what causes it. Research believes that there is a link to some abnormalities in the chromosomes of the miscarried baby. Other research suggests that there is a link to increased chances and the age of women since it happens mostly to happen above age thirty.

There are usually no complications with the surviving twin if this does happen early in the pregnancy such as the first trimester. As mentioned above, the mother may not even notice that it had happened unless she takes an ultrasound. In any case, the surviving baby may also not be aware that he or she has a sibling and will come out healthy.

Now, things may be a little more complicated when this condition occurs sometime during the later trimesters of pregnancy such as the second or the third trimester. If this happens, the doctor would put the mother at a high risk pregnancy because the surviving baby may have some complications. One example would be cerebral palsy in the surviving child or other things.

Now, early detection and preparation would be the key in avoiding such complications like the ones mentioned above. Awareness about the complications, the symptoms, and other things is extremely important. That is why it is recommended that mothers who are already having some symptoms that were mentioned above should go visit a doctor as soon as possible.




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