Want to make a memorial to your womb twin on Womb Twin day?

WombTwin day will be on December 21st and this year we have our new womb twin memorials site.   A good way to honour and remember your twin on WombTwin day this year may be to have a memorial made for your lost womb twin (or more).  If  we get the memorials all ready in advance, they can be uploaded all together to the site on December 21st.

I make the memorials, so if you get your application to me by November 20th, then I will get everything ready and make sure that all the memorials are uploaded at once onto the web site at midnight GMT on 20th December.

You can choose an image for your memorial from the gallery on the web site, or provide your own.  All we ask is that you make a small donation to WombTwin.com, and your memorial can remain on the web site for as long as you wish. 

Take a look here and see how it all works.  There is an application form on the site. 

Wombtwin survivors: born grieving?

I found this letter online today, I had forgotten about it.
 
"I read this article with interest, because I have been studying the feelings and attitudes of the sole survivors of a twin or multiple pregancy. This article and all the other articles sited in it suggest some kind of event or effect that occurs during pregnancy and leaves a permanent effect on the baby after birth.  I believe that more research is needed into the psychological effect of losing a twin before birth. My own initial research, carried out by means of a web-based questionnaire, indicates that those who know and have proof that they lost a twin and those who simply believe it but have no proof experience similar psychological difficulties. These include depression, isolation and various forms of self harm, including addiction and suicide attempts. It also seems likely that survivors of an identical twin pair are more deeply affected by the loss of their twin than the survivors of fraternal twins - it seems that they are born grieving."

It was a comment on this article - many womb twin survivors are born small for dates:

Birth weight and later risk of depression in a national birth cohort

CATHARINE R. GALE, PhD

That was in 2005. We are slowly moving forward to an increasing understanding of this.....

Borderline Personality Disorder- womb twin survivors at risk of misdiagnosis?

There is a new article on my womb twin survivors web site that may be of interest if you are a womb twin survivor and have ever been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. (BPD)  I wrote it for a professional journal and they turned it down, so I've put it up for all to see on the web site.

Read it here:

Conclusion :

...............this so called “disorder” in its various manifestations may not be a mental health problem at all, but a rational, intelligent response to a rather unusual pre-birth situation. In the absence of a rational explanation, the etiology of Borderline Personality Disorder has remained elusive and hard to define, but a certain group of people presenting with a specific set of symptoms have been noticed, and given this label. The congruence between the symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder and the psychological characteristics of womb twin survivors (i.e. the sole survivors of a twin or multiple pregnancy) who number 15% of the population, suggests that they may be one and the same. 

Comments, anyone?

The questionnaires are coming in - nearly there!

How about this? That dotted line means I will have got 500 questionnaires. [This is what it looks like online if you haven't seen it yet]  The trouble is that only half of the people who respond are able to provide evidence of their twin, and that has always been a consistent result, throughout six versions of the questionnaire over 8 years.  Either there is none, and that is quite common, because the "vanishing twin" syndrome can happen silently, and then only the ultrasound scan images can tell the story.  Not everyone has scans, especially older people - the oldest so far is over 70. So out of that 500 I have about 266 with  evidence. When  I have 1000 I will have 500 or so with evidence and that is a much more reliable group to analyse. It's interesting how the slope of that line is so consistent - I get an average of 10-12 a week, so another 10 weeks will do it and I will be able to begin the analysis.





I have been doing some more analysis of the 266 with evidence to make the Powerpoint presentation for the APPAH conference Nov 12th in USA.   I have discovered that most womb twin survivors are the sole survivors of a monozygotic (identical) twin pair. That's interesting, because I thought I didn't have enough identical womb twin survivors in the study -  in fact, I have more than the others!

The other interesting new discovery is how many respondents to the questionnaire are multiple womb twin survivors (triplets or more.) They have been evident from the start of this research in 2003, but I didn't know how many there were until I started to count them yesterday!  ( More later, once I have a nice picture to show you...)

Chimerism - When fraternal twin embryos fuse

A 2007 article, linked here:

Chimerism and tetragametic chimerism in humans: implications in autoimmunity, allorecognition and tolerance

Quote:  Demonstration of persistent chimerism is usually discovered in cases of inter-sexuality due to fusion of fraternal twins or in cases of fusion of embryos with demonstrable allogeneic monoclonality of blood which, excluded maternity or paternity when blood alone is used as the source of DNA. In single pregnancies it is possible to produce two kinds of microchimerism: feto-maternal and materno-fetal, but in cases of fraternal twin pregnancies it is possible to identify three different kinds which are related to cases of vanishing twins that can be identified during pregnancy by imaging procedures; (1) hematopoietic, (2) gonadal, and (3) freemartins when the twins have different sex and the individual born is a female with either gonadal or both gonadal and hematopoietic tissues. Fraternal twin pregnancies can also produce fusion of embryos. Such cases could be of different sex presenting with inter-sexuality or in same sex twins

Simply, this means that fraternal twins can fuse in early pregnancy, leaving one sole survivor with mixed DNA. Even one blood stem cell from a vanishing twin can mean that your blood is chimeric - ie. of a mixed type. Or you may have a teratoma that is made out of cells from your twin, or a dermoid cyst, or specific tissues, such as your ovaries, that are not your own.

The implications are that autoimmune disease could be related to this, also how tolerant you are if you have some kind of transplant.

I have noticed how many womb twin survivors are sensitive to their environment, to chemicals, pollution, certain foods, caffeine and so forth.

The vanished twin leaves a legacy at a psychological level, thats  for sure,  but there are also many physical signs.   Some of them are  at a microscopic level, but they are very profound, nonetheless. For example, being intersex creates an existential crisis - "Who am I?  Man or woman?"  That's hard.

So many questions!!

This is a message from an anonymous womb twin survivor in the USA:

I don't even know where to begin. I just found out last weekend that I was a twin. Apparently, I had a brother who died within days, possibly within hours of our birth. Somehow this is very shocking, but at the same time I almost feel vindicated. My sister thought I knew. My mother never told me. Still, I remember being told by my mother that I had a fantastic imagination when I would "make up stories" about having a brother (I have four living sisters). I also remember having a very special imaginary friend (about age three). I would cry hysterically when I thought we were leaving him behind somewhere. This explains so much, and at the same time leaves me wondering about so many things. 
Why didn't she tell me? 
Why didn't we ever talk about him? 
Why was it such a secret? 
What happened? 
Why did he die? 
How long did he live? 
Is he buried somewhere? 
Did he have a name?

There are so many questions when you discover you are a womb twin survivor.  We don't have all the answers yet, but we have come a long way in the last few years.

If  you have the same questions, comment here or subscribe to the forum and lets find answers together.

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Twins show the world how babies want to be social before birth!

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/social-babies/


Wired Science News for Your Neurons


Babies Want to Be Social, Even Before They’re Born

• By Brandon Keim 

• October 8, 2010  | 

The impulse to be social is so deep-seated in human consciousness that it’s even evident in the womb, suggests a new study on the interaction of twins just a few months after conception.

Twin pregnancies offer “the unique opportunity to explore social behavior before birth,” wrote researchers led by psychologist Umberto Castiello of Italy’s University of Padova. “Newborns come into the world wired to socially interact. Is a propensity to socially oriented action already present before birth?”

The researchers used ultrasound recorders to make three-dimensional videos of five pairs of twins, once at 14 weeks and again at 18 weeks. By the 14th week, they were already reaching for each other. This was even more pronounced by the 18th week, when fetuses touched each other more often than themselves.

Though some contact is inevitable between two growing bodies sharing a confined space, kinematic analysis showed that fetuses used distinct gestures when touching each other, rather than touching themselves or uterine walls. Their hands lingered.

“Performance of movements towards the twin is not accidental,” wrote the researchers. Their findings were published Oct. 7 in Public Library of Science One.

Earlier research had shown that within hours of birth, newborns already imitate the facial gestures of other people, indicating an inborn capacity for social behavior. The researchers call this “the social pre-wiring hypothesis.”

The findings “epitomize the congenital propensity for sociality of primates in general and of humans in particular,” wrote the researchers. Put another way, it’s human nature to reach out and touch someone.

Image: Video frames representing a fetus reaching towards and “caressing” the back (left) or head (right) of a sibling./PLoS One.

  “Wired to Be Social: The Ontogeny of Human Interaction.” By Umberto Castiello, Cristina Becchio, Stefania Zoia, Cristian Nelini, Luisa Sartori, Laura Blason, Giuseppina D’Ottavio, Maria Bulgheroni, Vittorio Gallese. Public Library of Science One, Vol. 5 No. 10, October 7, 2010.

Time Magazine: the fetal origins hypothesis

The fetal origins hypothesis has made it into the popular press. Amazing.

Quote:

"But there's another powerful source of influence you may not have considered: your life as a fetus. The kind and quantity of nutrition you received in the womb; the pollutants, drugs and infections you were exposed to during gestation; your mother's health, stress level and state of mind while she was pregnant with you — all these factors shaped you as a baby and a child and continue to affect you to this day.

This is the provocative contention of a field known as fetal origins, whose pioneers assert that the nine months of gestation constitute the most consequential period of our lives, permanently influencing the wiring of the brain and the functioning of organs such as the heart, liver and pancreas. The conditions we encounter in utero, they claim, shape our susceptibility to disease, our appetite and metabolism, our intelligence and temperament. In the literature on the subject, which has exploded over the past 10 years, you can find references to the fetal origins of cancer, cardiovascular disease, allergies, asthma, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, mental illness — even of conditions associated with old age like arthritis, osteoporosis and cognitive decline.

The notion of prenatal influence may conjure up frivolous attempts to enrich the fetus: playing Mozart to a pregnant belly and the like. In reality, the shaping and molding that goes on in utero is far more visceral and consequential than that. Much of what a pregnant woman encounters in her daily life — the air she breathes, the food and drink she consumes, the chemicals she's exposed to, even the emotions she feels — is shared in some fashion with her fetus. The fetus incorporates these offerings into its own body, makes them part of its flesh and blood."

Now if those ideas are found acceptable, it's only a short step to public realisation that sharing your mother's blood supply with a twin who dies before birth will also have some kind of lifelong effect on the sole survivor.  Then maybe there could be some funding available to support research.  I am looking forward to that day! 

Identical twins separated at birth

The womb memory of being together from the time of conception is the basis of their sadness at being kept apart. Paula Bernstein and Elyse Schein were separated at birth in a secret twins study. Paula searched all her life for her missing half. Strangely, Elyse didn't search. I wonder why?

The conference is over, but what a result!

Well, we managed it, after a real struggle to get  enough people. In the end we went forward with a group of 11, and we had to adapt things to their needs, but the open space format helped, because we were able to negotiate two presentations and two workshops, which seemed to satisfy everyone.  The group was a bit too small to  split, everyone thought, so we did everything as a single group. The rain fell relentlesly and occasionally there was a glimpse of sun, we  mixed and mingled talked and drank a great deal of tea and coffee in the corridor outside, and browsed the literature table and shop.

The presentations were, first, about a study of womb twin survivors carried out in Hungary  - yes, Viktoria Sas came all the way from Hungary to be there! - that compared a group of 14 people ( out of a total of 114) who had found their womb twin in a family constellation group with the others who had not, using a questionnaire similar to mine but with some different statements. The same proportion appeared: 1 in 8 of the group were womb twu survivors. Also the commonest effect was "searching for something but not knowing what it is". Also a need to control and perfectionism were found also to be significant effects.

{As Viktoria is skilled at statistics,she  has offered to help me with analysing the questionnaire results when I have 1000. I also have another English Victoria who is skilled at statistical analysis and has offered her services free. Two new volunteers!}

Then secondly Alfred Ramoda Austermann from Berlin explained some of the healing techniques he  had developed to help people with trauma and in particular the trauma of losing a twin before birth. His particular skill is family constellation.

After  a substantial lunch in the dining hall with many other people who had come  to the centre  for meetings that day ( there were about 8 other groups doing other things, a busy day for the centre!) It  was time to tackle the thorny issue of sexuality, then another tea break. and we were exploring the general topic of twinship.

On Sunday we  made a ritual enactment of the healing path, using all kind of props, such white  black and silver cloth,pink ballons, stones, scarves, boxes and even horse chestnuts!  As each person walked their healing path , we all watched in wonder as the props became a Black hole, the essence of Spirit, Alpha energy, trouble, memories and different gender energy.  Beautiful!

Finally  after the Annual genetral meeting of wombtwin.com, we sat round and planned the next event. Ill describe that on the wombtwin.com blog.

In  all, the  wonderful, special energy in the group that is typical of womb twin survivors, I have discovered, and three new volunteers to help with the organisation.

A  good result. I am glad we didn't cancel!