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Identical or Fraternal??
Added: 1066 days ago.
Added by: kerrilynn17
Section: General.
Status: This question is Closed. (Questions will be closed after 10 days.)


How do you know the difference or does it take a whil to tell, what kind of twins you are carrying??

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karenbg - 1060 days ago Rating: 0 (0 votes) there are tests you can have but they are kind of expensive; my friend considered getting them done to find out about her twins but after she found out how pricy they were she opted not to...

1sttimemum2twins - 1066 days ago Rating: 0 (0 votes) xolblondieox is 100% righton everything!! I had exactly the same pregnancy and I too became obsessed with all things identical. The only other info I picked up was that many people told me that one placenta means identical. This is not always the case. Often two separate placentas can fuse in to one and its very hard to tell, even by examining the placenta at birth. I was also told they were identical cos the wall between them was very thin, but then my OB told me this isn't an accurate method either as its very hard to tell from the scans. When they were born they looked NOTHING alike and I have fraternal twins on both my mums and dads side so we began to doubt it and had them DNA tested and they are indeed identical.

xolblondieox - 1066 days ago Rating: 0 (0 votes) No, no, no. Identicals can be in two different sacs! You don't have to talk to a perinatologist or read medical journals like I did, just google it! It is rare but can absolutely happen. It's called a diamniotic/dichorionic pregnancy and you need a DNA test to confirm. I'm a mom of identicals...I know!

JuliMomOf4 - 1066 days ago Rating: 0 (0 votes) Identical share the same sac as they're from the same egg/sperm combo. Fraternal have 2 seperate sacs and that's what they generally look at when you have an US. That's what they told me a few weeks back at my US anyways.

babyluv08 - 1066 days ago Rating: 0 (0 votes) I agree with beautyfulmommy... I'm pretty sure identical babies share a sac

windchime - 1066 days ago Rating: 0 (0 votes) As far as I'm aware (from knowing a few moms of twins), if your twins are the same gender, you can only tell for sure by a DNA test. Otherwise it's just observation to see if they look alike.

last.one.for.me - 1066 days ago Rating: 0 (0 votes) My ex boyfriend was an identical twin... even though they're identical, there are subtle difference, particularly as they get older and become adults.. My ex and his brother looked more alike as babies, but I could tell - when his mum got the old baby photos out - which was my boyfriend as a baby immediately.. Strange, but I just knew. And they were truly identical.. I think when you're very close to a set of twins, or in my case a particular twin, you just can tell them apart with little effort.. So I imagine for the parents of twins, it'll be something that happens naturally and almost immediately :]

my4kids - 1066 days ago Rating: 0 (0 votes) i went to school with a set of indentical faternal twins look exactly alike but different sex, My twins are indentical its great.

xolblondieox - 1066 days ago Rating: 0 (0 votes) Ooook in response to your question about the "identical-ness" of your babies, prepare to be confused...First off identical twins result from 1 fertilized egg and 1 sperm. For some unknown reason this single fertilized egg (the egg is called a zygote) decides to split in half some days after conception. This is why identicals are called "monozygotic" because they result from 1 egg. Each multiple in a monozygotic set has the same chromosome makeup and will always be either all girls or all boys. WHEN the egg (zygote) splits is what determines which kind of identicals you are having. There are three different types: 1. If the egg splits in 72 hours you get "Dichorionic-Diamniotic". A chorion is outermost fetal membrane found around the amnion. So your babies have 2 placentas and 2 amniotic sacs of fluid. 2. If the egg splits in 4-7 days you get "Monochorionic-Diamniotic". This is what my identicals are. This means that your babies have 1 giant placenta but 2 amniotic sacs of fluid. The amniotic sacs are divided by a very thin membrane. 3. If the egg splits in 8+ days you get "Monochorionic-Monoamniotic" or a "Mo Mo" pregnancy. This is where both babies share 1 giant placenta and 1 giant amniotic sac. This only occurs in 1% of identical pregnancies and is very dangerous with only a 50% survival rate due to umbilical cords getting intermingled and babies suffocating. Now it gets good. Example number 3 can ONLY happen in identical pregnancy. However, example numbers 1 and 2 can occur in fraternal or identical pregnancy. In example number 2, my pregnancy, they were able to determine zygocity by how thin the membrane dividing my two amniotic sacs was. So thinness or thickness of the membrane is a clear way of knowing. In example number one, Dichorionic- Diamniotic, twins may be identical or fraternal, it's inconslusive. The only way to know for certain is if you find out the sex of your babies and they are different (1 boy 1 girl) then you know for certain that they cannot be identical or if they are the same sex and resemble eachother after birth you have their DNA tested. The most common scenario is example 2- it occurs 60-70% of the time. It all comes down to "how did it start, with 1 egg or 2" and it's not like you were watching or any doctor was at a mere 7 days after conception so we are therefore left with a mystery. Overall though this crap is craaaazy confusing and I only know so much about it because when I got preganant with idenitcals I became obsessed and bought every medical book on the market- I had to be my own little expert because I wanted to keep up with the "doctor talk". If you could tell me what yout ultrasound revealed I could probably tell you for certain. Good luck to you and let me know if you find out for certain! I know it's long but hope this helped!

beautyfulmommy - 1066 days ago Rating: 0 (0 votes) I think identical is in the same sac. & fraternal has different sacs. I may be wrong.