Important post

Tributes to Althea Hayton

Althea Hayton, founder of Womb Twin, passed away peacefully on August 13 (sorry for the delay in posting this news on the blog). We are all ...

Wednesday, April 06, 2011

Signs of a twin conception: (6) the blighted ovum

The blighted ovum is a frequent cause of miscarriage, and is caused by an embryo failing to develop beyond the very first stages.  


Though a blighted ovum can sometimes be the result of low hormone levels in the body, the major cause of the condition appears to be chromosomal.  A blighted ovum is thought to occur when the chromosomes making up the fetus become defective or disordered, resulting in severe genetic defects. Your body recognises these chromosomal abnormalities and chooses to end the pregnancy.  Chromosomal abnormalities can occur for many reasons. Sometimes, the egg or sperm that are joined during fertilization have defective cells.  Other times, chromosomes can become improperly arranged during division of the fertilized egg. [more]


A blighted ovum is referred to as an "abnormality" for this reason. 
In one study of multiple pregnancies carried out over a period of four years, 41 cases of abnormal multiple pregnancies were diagnosed successfully by ultrasound. These included several rare combinations of abnormalities. The most frequent was a normal pregnancy and a synchronous blighted ovum.  [more]
When thinking about womb twin survivors, and the psychological effect on the sole survivor when the other twin was nothing more than a tiny embryo that never developed and left only an empty sac behind, how would that survivor keep their lost twin alive in their Dream of the Womb?
A sense of somehow never getting going with life, perhaps? Stuck forever in a kind of limbo, with no sense of self, independent life or autonomy? 

We have a lot more to learn before we can be sure of any of this, but some womb twin survivors say they don't "feel here" in this life.......maybe their twin was a blighted ovum, and never had any chance of a life, however short.




No comments:

Post a Comment