The Case Of Vanishing Twin Syndrome

By Sharon Kelly


Pregnancies are always quite complicated, especially if there are twins involved in its birth. One of the complications that may happen during the birth of twins is known as vanishing twin syndrome. Here are a few things to know about this phenomenon such as the causes of it and the effects it may have on the babies and the mother.

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.

As per majority of pregnancies, this would usually happen during the first pregnancy and can be spotted through an ultrasound and several follow up ultrasounds. The first ultrasound will confirm whether the mother has twins or not. Through follow up ultrasounds, the mother will then be able to know if both twins are still there or if one disappeared.

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 of current, there is no concrete cause of this condition. What doctors do know though is that it is often linked to abnormal chromosomes found in the baby that was not able to make it. Another thing that research has found is that the risk of having this condition appears in women thirty and above more often.

That said though, most mothers would actually be worried about some complications that may happen to them or the surviving baby. The good news is that there are usually no complications that accompany this condition aside from a few symptoms that would result in a few medicines prescribed by the doctor. Some symptoms may include bleeding, uterine pain, and even pelvic pain.

This is not the cause for pregnancies wherein this syndrome occurs during the later part of the pregnancy though. If ever this happens sometime during the second or third trimester, the doctors would usually treat it as a high risk pregnancies because of possible complications. One of the complications would be an increase in the risk of 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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