U.S. Twin Birth Rate Reached A Record High In 2014

The twin birth rate in the United States hit an all-time high last year, though it grew only marginally from the previous year, according to the annual Centers for Disease Control & Prevention’s (CDC’s) National Vital Statistics Report.

“What might have been a triplet birth in the past is now a twin birth”, said one of the authors of the new report, Michelle Osterman of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The lowest rate of twin births was in New Mexico (24.0). As per recent scenario, triplet (and higher) births are at a 20-year record low, even as twins continue to rise.

Namely, in 2014 there were around 113.5 such deliveries per 100,000, a significant drop since 2013 when 119.5 such births occurred for every 100,000 births.

The recently published report states that the twin birth rate in the nation jumped to 33.9 twins per 1,000 births in 2014. Even though conceiving is more hard the older the woman gets, some research shows they are actually more likely to have twins. The report added that the general fertility rate ticked up 1% from 2013 to 62.9 per 1,000 women aged 15-44 in 2014.

On the other hand, given the fact IVF has become more effective, and multi-fetal pregnancies tend to be more hazardous, having been associated with a higher risk of miscarriage, premature birth and neonatal death, medical practitioners have been reducing the number of embryos to be transferred, limiting it at three or less.

The reason behind the trend is not exactly known, nonetheless, more women are delivering birth later in life, which has a higher incidence of having twins, health authorities stated and more are taking advantage of in vitro fertilization procedure. The newest data was collected throughout 2014 and found that there were roughly 33.9 pairs of twins born for every birth in the U.S.

Changes in fertility treatments – such as implanting three or fewer embryos – have likely attributed to the decline in triplet and higher-order birth rates, the researchers wrote. The drop in the birth rates has been due to improved efforts to educate teens and provide them long-term birth control like IUDs. This means that the chances of a woman having 2 eggs ready for fertilization in a single cycle when she is in her 30s rather than in her 20s.