Baby Gifts Blog

The latest statistics show that there have been more twin births in Queensland in recent years than ever before. There were a record 856 sets of twins born in Queensland in 2005 – and only 28.3 per cent of them were assisted by fertility treatments, which means 1232 twins were born without fertility assistance.

On the eve of Multiple Birth Awareness Week (March 7-16) Melbourne researchers Dr Supriya Raj and Dr Ruth Morley have published a timely paper, the first of its kind in Australia, called “Are You Asking Me If We Had Sex To Conceive?”

The paper found there needed to be more public education about the conception of twins, with the survey’s heading relating to a response a mother gave when asked if her babies were conceived through IVF.

Raj and Morley surveyed 975 mothers, 40 per cent of whom have had some form of fertility assistance and many were concerned about the public stigma of IVF conception.

Thirteen per cent of parents surveyed say they were so concerned about the public backlash to fertility treatment that they would not tell their friends how their babies were conceived.

Australian Multiple Birth Association Queensland representative Marianne Schmidt says strangers regularly make comments to her and her husband about their three-year-old twins, who were spontaneously conceived.

She says one of the most upsetting was made when her twins were babies and were crying and a woman said to her: “You should have stopped and thought about that before you had IVF.”

“You are always asked, ‘Are they twins?’ and then ‘Are they natural?’,” Schmidt says. “All babies are natural. It’s very hard to have an unnatural baby. People are fascinated by twins. People love twins. We just have to get people better educated.”

Schmidt, of Samford, is one of the growing number of older mums who fall pregnant with multiple births.

“From the age of 35, women are releasing more eggs a month as the body gets ready for menopause,” she says.

“Your body also releases more eggs a month shortly after having a baby, when your hormones are racing and your body is trying to catch up, which is why a lot of women fall pregnant, often with twins, while breastfeeding, because they think it is a natural contraceptive.”

Australian Multiple Birth Association spokeswoman Melissa Klemke, a mother of spontaneously conceived two-year-old twins, says everyone has assumed 38-year-old Lopez received fertility assistance because of her age but she says there has been no evidence.

“It’s quite a common perception if you are an older woman who has had twins then people think you’ve had IVF and Jennifer Lopez easily falls into that category,” Klemke says.

“It’s a lot easier to have sex than go through the IVF process and all that indignity.

“In the whole scheme of things it doesn’t matter how children are conceived, as long as people are able to experience the joy of parenthood.”

Schmidt jokes: “I wish someone had given me $A6.5 million to take photos of my twins” in reference to the money multi-millionaire Lopez has received from People magazine.

Klemke and Schmidt say that twins provide double the joy and reward but also created higher levels of anxiety and were more of a financial burden – even for celebrities.

“If these celebrities do have help, they are still doing it hard, whoever you are, you still have a rough time, especially in the first 12 months,” Klemke says.

“Nobody chooses to have this lifestyle but it’s absolutely worth it.

“It’s hard work but you get two lots of kisses, two lots of I love yous and two lots of milestones.”