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 ...

Showing posts with label zygosity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label zygosity. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

The message :(2) Telling the professionals

The  psychological characteristics of the womb twin survivor are hard to understand if you are one of the 90% who don't understand and you are a psychiatrist imbued with ideas about " psychological disorders" that can be "treated" with  pharmaceuticals.

I was in correspondence with a womb twin survivor in 2007 and he sent me this article from the LA times. 

When kids have behavioral problems, diagnoses and drugs often follow.   Has psychiatry gone overboard on medicating children?

November 05, 2007| Melissa Healy | Times Staff Writer

A month ago, Katie, a 38-year-old L.A.-area mother of three, brought the child to a psychiatrist. The child's behavior and performance in school were exemplary, but an ill-tempered outburst had gotten the preteen kicked out of a Girl Scout troop she had joined at age 5. The girl was confused and heartbroken over her ejection.  The daughter came away from the appointment with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. Katie, who asked that her full name be withheld to protect her daughter's privacy, came away with a list of 10 powerful psychiatric medicines and a momentous decision to make. Some combination of these mood-stabilizing, anticonvulsive and antipsychotic drugs, Katie was told, would probably control her daughter's problematic behaviors, referred to by her psychiatrist as symptoms of a disease.   Now it's Katie who has the racing thoughts and the alternating bouts of fear, anxiety, relief and anger. As she ponders whether her daughter's strange behavior really amounts to mental illness -- and whether medication is the answer -- she says, "I feel like I'm flying blind."

My research is beginning to suggest that  "bi polar disorder" is in fact nothing more than the characteristic response to the loss of a twin before birth.  Furthermore, not all womb twin survivors are diagnosed with this " disorder" and where it does exist the characteristics vary between them. I am working on the hypothesis that a lot depends on exactly what prenatal memories lie in the  Dream of the Womb, such as whether the twin was monozygotic or not.   Some people think I am going too far when I say this, but I speak as I find : I didnt invent this idea, I only describe what I am being told by over a thousand womb twin survivors so far, with more to come, no doubt, via my research questionnaire.


So we all need to work hard to pass the message on to the medical health professionals - psychiatrists, psychologists, research scientists and psychotherapists.  I have a special page for medical professionals here. And another for therapists here.

It's easy to identify a womb twin survivor now we know what to look for -
Let's get to it and end this damaging level of ignorance among professionals that has lead to a young child being put on psychiatric medication.  These are good-hearted people who are trying to help, but think there is no alternative, because no one has explained this to them.

If you care, PASS THE MESSAGE ON to the professionals, for the sake of these children.




Saturday, January 19, 2008

The fraternal twin pair: is it what it seems?

There is a golden rule in determining zygosity; that if there is one placenta and two babies, then we have identical twins. If the babies grow up to look a bit different from each other, the idea of their being identical still seems to remain.

On the other hand, if we have two placentas, do we have fraternal twins? A percentage of identical twins do develop separate placentas, so we cannot use the number of placentas as a certain guide. At an individual level, pairs of twins can seek out an expert to prove their zygosity by looking directly at their genes.

A further complication is the “vanishing twin” pregnancy. A pair of fraternal twins may be a triplet set, reduced to twins in the earliest stages of pregnancy and not picked up by ultrasound. If the lost triplet was of the opposite sex and an identical pair survived, then the transfer of gender-related hormones, which is known to occur between fraternal twins, may obscure the results if this twin pair takes part in research. Equally, if the lost triplet was one of an identical pair, then the surviving fraternal twins will not simply be the result of a double ovulation but instead will be a reduced triplet pregnancy, resulting in one surviving identical twin and another who is genetically unrelated. When one considers the complexities of naturally reduced triplet sets, then the placenta rule, which is after all no more than a rule of thumb, becomes far too unreliable.