And most often a woman does not have any symptoms of miscarriage. Jeffrey Ecker, of Massachusetts General Hospital and chair of the American Obstetrician and Gynecological Association (ACOG) obstetrician practice committee. Vanishing twin syndrome occurs in around 25 percent of early twin pregnancies, according to Dr. But by the time a woman returns for her next visit, only one heartbeat or fetus remains. For example, a woman may have an ultrasound in her sixth or seventh week, in which a doctor or technician sees two fetuses on the monitor. Most multi-gestation losses occur during the first trimester- known as “vanishing twin syndrome,” where one twin disappears or “vanishes” in the uterus. “And it will be easier for you to have only one, in the end, you’ll be happier.” “I had people close to me say things like everything you went through was worth it because you now have this beautiful baby,” she recalls. Looking back, Deptula-now a mother to the surviving twin, 3-year-old Sloane, and 4-week-old Rockwell-is “struck by how powerful my sadness was and how it lived alongside my great hope and joy.” And Deptula saw how hard it was for some people to understand that neither emotion- the grief or the excitement- alleviated or overshadowed the other. After learning the news through a routine ultra sound, she and her husband Jonathan wrote an email to friends and family to share their sorrow- but also to reassure everyone that there was occasion for much happiness: “The wonderful news is that Baby B looks terrific! He/she is really active and growing like a weed…we are so excited to meet this little baby this summer and will discover his/her gender then!” However, some people had trouble relating to the experience and would ask Oradat: “Aren’t you so glad your daughter is healthy?” Of course I am, she remembers thinking, but that doesn’t mean I’m not grieving too.įour years ago, Maura Deptula, 34, of Chicago, Illinois, lost a twin pregnancy at 22 weeks. “My husband was deployed overseas and I wasn’t going to ever forget about Mallory but I wasn’t going to let my grief control the course of the rest of my pregnancy.” “At the time, I made the decision to be an optimist,” she told TODAY Parents. Often, a stillbirth, as in Oradat’s case, is not cause for medical intervention, and the lost twin remains inside the mother’s uterus until the surviving baby is delivered. During her first trimester, Oradat was in a car accident, although she says she’ll never know for sure whether it contributed to the stillbirth of the twin she named Mallory- a way, Oradat, like other women, found to memorialize the child who will never be.
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