The CDC just published a report describing U.S. trends in births in twin deliveries between 1980 and 2009. The results are interesting.
The rate of multiple gestations has been rising in America since the advent of assisted reproductive technologies like IVF. The CDC just published data that reveals how the trend in multiple gestations is rising faster in some populations than others.
Here are the key findings as reported by the CDC:
1. In 2009, 1 in every 30 babies born in the United States was a twin, compared with 1 in every 53 babies in 1980.
2. The twin birth rate rose 76 percent from 1980 through 2009, from 18.9 to 33.3 per 1,000 births.
3. If the rate of twin births had not changed since 1980, approximately 865,000 fewer twins would have been born in the United States over the last three decades.
4. Twinning rates rose by at least 50 percent in the vast majority of states and the District of Columbia.
5. Over the three decades, twin birth rates rose by nearly 100 percent among women aged 35–39 and more than 200 percent among women aged 40 and over.
6. The older age of women at childbirth in 2009 compared with three decades earlier accounts for only about one-third of the rise in twinning over the 30 years.
Dr. Lowell T. Ku, M.D. is an award winning and leading Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility specialist at Dallas IVF, one the nation’s premiere infertility centers. Doctor Ku clarifies the many confusing terms used in the world of Infertility using straightforward explanations.
