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Risks to the mother
Risks to the mother
For mothers, risks arising from multiple pregnancies range from the less serious to the life-threatening.
Pregnancy complications
A number of pregnancy complications (hypertension, pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes etc) may mean an early admission to hospital for the last weeks of pregnancy and that the birth may have to be induced early.
- Higher rates of miscarriage.
- 20% of women pregnant with twins suffer from pregnancy induced hypertension, compared to around 1–5% of women pregnant with a singleton.
- Research in the UK found that the risk of pre-eclampsia was up to 30% for twin pregnancies compared to 2–10% in singleton pregnancies.
- The risk of gestational diabetes is up to 12% in twin pregnancies compared to around 4% for singleton pregnancies.
- Higher chance of intervention in delivery. Elective and emergency caesarean section rates are higher for mothers of twins.
Maternal mortality
There is a 1/25,000 risk of maternal mortality during singleton pregnancy or birth versus 2/25,000 risk of maternal mortality during twin pregnancy or birth.
What other countries are doing
Many other countries have already successfully introduced a single embryo transfer policy – the multiple birth rate has plummeted while birth rates have remained largely unaffected.
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