Twin – to – twin transfusion syndrome is quite a rare (about 15%), but extremely serious complication, which occurs in identical twins, when blood flows from one fetus to the second through their shared placenta. The only way to treat this complication is to drain amniotic fluid from the sack of the baby, who receives extra blood, though the chance of both babies’ survival this kind of treatment is about 60%, two to three times higher than without any treatment conducting.

Does a woman need to be put on bedrest?
The very term “bedrest” has a variety of meaning, beginning from mere curailing your activities in some way to literary not getting out of bed. If there is any health complication or if there is much risk of premature delivery, your doctor may put you on bedrest. Though there is no proof that bedrest prevents premature delivery, it can improve babies’ birth weight. So, even if your pregnancy is going smoothly, without any evident complications, but your doctor or midwife recommend you to take it, you should better follow their advice.

What are the chances that a woman will lose one or more of her babies?
Any women, expecting twins has a risk of miscarriage of one of her babies yet in early terms, while the second baby stays in place. This kind of a situation occurs in 20% of all twin pregnancies, and it is called the “vanishing twin”. In case if a woman carries three babies at a time, the risk to lose one or more of them during the first half of pregnancy becomes somewhat higher, about 40%. When one of the babies gets vanished even yet before the first ultrasound, a woman may not even be aware of her multiple pregnancy, and the only symptom of her miscarriage will be some vaginal bleeding, while all the remaining babies will go on developing normally.

Stillbirth occurs when a baby gets lost after the 20th week of pregnancy. This phenomenon is a little bit more common in pregnancies with twins, triplets and more babies, but it is still considered to happen rarely. Only 1 to 2% of twins, triplets and more babies are stillborn, compared with about 0.5% of singletons.
There are also cases, in which babies are lost at the very end of pregnancy, and they are delivered together with the baby/babies, who survive. Rarely, but still possible, that a stillborn baby/babies is/are delivered several weeks before the survival one/ones.

In case if you are expecting monozygotic twins or triplets, who share one placenta, the loss on one of the after the 20th week of pregnancy can be dangerous to the surviving of the rest of the babies. In case of dizygotic twins the rest of the babies have a good chance to survive and develop normally.

What can be done in order to reduce the risk?
The best protection will be your getting aware about your pregnancy with two or more babies at a time as early as possible, though many health complications do not depend either on your lifestyle or your behaviour. However, the earlier you will get to know about your developing twins, triplets, etc, the more time your doctor will have to catch and treat any possible health problem.

It is also important to be aware of the most widespread risks and complications of multiple pregnancies, however do not get too much involved in any negative information. Your should also know all the premature delivery signs. It is extremely necessary for all of you to be well nourished and well hydrated, and, finally, you are never to miss any prenatal appointment and make sure to follow all your doctor’s instructions.