Twin Girls
Twin Girls
On the 2nd November 2010 our twin girls daughters Chanelle Faith Lewis & Demi Jade Lewis entered the world, as two beautiful twin girls. We invite you to browse our website, view the pictures of our new additions to the Lewis family. Crystal cooked our twin girls for 38 weeks and 5 days. We are very proud parents and feel so totally blessed to have been able to create not one but two precious life’s. People say your lives change when you have children, it was a something that we just couldn’t understand or even begin to imagine, well all we can say now is that it seems our life’s have just begun. We hope you enjoy sharing our journey.
What are Twins?
Twins are a rare occurrence statistically, but they can happen. There are two types of twins, which are monozygotic twins (identical) and dizygotic twins (fraternal). When you find out that you are pregnant with twins, your doctor will be able to tell you right away which type you are pregnant with.
Identical twins, or monozygotic twins, make up about a third of all twins born in the world. These twins will have the exact same DNA. Twins that are identical form when one single fertilized egg splits into two zygotes after conception. Two individual embryos will form into two babies, yet their DNA and genetic material is exactly the same because they came from the same sperm and egg. There are no known causes for the egg to split into two after conception, but this phenomenon is referred to as a malfunction of the standard development cycle. While many believe that a genetic trait causes identical twins, this is not the case. There is no hereditary trait that can influence the splitting of the egg. Your odds of having twins are about 3 in 1,000.
Dizygotic twins, or fraternal twins, are from two different eggs and two separate sperm. Most women release one single egg during their ovulation cycle, but occasionally more than one egg is released at once. If this happens and each egg becomes fertilized by a sperm, then there will be two different embryos inside of the womb that have different DNA. These twins will share roughly 50% of their genetic traits, which is the same amount as other siblings. Fraternal twins make up two-thirds of all of the twins that are born in the world. There is some evidence that there is a hereditary trait that leads to releasing multiple eggs during ovulation, which can make fraternal twins more common in families where there is already a set of fraternal twins. Often, fraternal twins can result in cases where the mother has used fertility enhancing drugs.
Another form of twins, called conjoined or Siamese twins, occurs when the egg in a monozygotic fertilization begins to split, but does not split all the way. Two embryos form, yet they are joined in certain areas. Sometimes they are only joined by something very small, such as their pinky finger. In other cases, the babies may share the same lungs or major bodily systems and it can be very hard to separate them. Conjoined twins have a survival rate of 25%.
Being pregnant with twins may seem scary, but there is no need to worry and you will be amazed at how exciting life is with two babies!