The Causes And Effects Of Vanishing Twin Syndrome

By Sharon Kelly


Having twins is not something that is easy to do because of the possible complications of holding two babies in one womb. One of the things that may happen during the early part of the pregnancy is known as the vanishing twin syndrome. For those who are curious about it, here are a few things that one should know about this condition.

As the name implies, it is a condition wherein one of two children born from the same womb would suddenly disappear while in the womb due to a miscarriage. When this happens, the child that is still there would absorb the fetal tissue and the placenta of the other one that vanished. Hence, it actually seems as if the other one suddenly did vanish into thin air, leaving only one child in the womb to be born.

Now, this incident is usually identified some time during the first trimester due to advanced ultrasound technology. During the first trimester, the parents may already know if ever they are expecting to have twins. In the following checkup though, one of the twins may disappear confirming that the mother does have this type of condition.

This type of phenomenon happens in about thirty percent of pregnancies with twins and would usually happen at the very early stages of pregnancies. Mothers may not even know that they had this condition because one of the children may just have vanished letting the other child absorb everything. In any case, mothers may have readings of a miscarriage but only be aware of having one child.

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.

If this does happen sometime during the first trimester of pregnancy, then mothers do not need to worry about any complications since the babies are still very small. At most, she would experience some symptoms like bleeding, cramps and some pelvic pain which may prompt the doctor to give some light medication to treat these symptoms. As mentioned above, some mothers are not even aware of having this sort of condition until the ultrasound confirms it.

Of course, things are a little bit different for the pregnancies that experience this condition in later trimesters. For instance, if this were to happen in the second trimester, then doctors would usually put the pregnancy at a high risk state in the event of complications. One common complication of this happening would be cerebral palsy for the surviving child.

While early detection of this kind of condition and an early occurrence may not be of any concern, late occurrence is. The key to this syndrome is to ensure awareness of what it is and how to deal with it. That said, it is highly recommended that women who are experiencing the symptoms such as pain in the pelvic area, bleeding, and uterine cramps go see her doctor right away.




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