Let me start by saying this: I am not a doctor or nurse. I have no medical expertise, I am just a mom who is trying to sort out all the twin and pregnancy language. These are likely over simplified and there are always exceptions.
Let's start at conception and talk about how twins happen:
Fraternal Twins (Di/Di Twins): This happens when the mother hyper ovulates (or ovulates more than once). Two eggs are released and fertilized. This can happen at the exact same time, or over a few days. Hyper-ovulation is hereditary-- meaning, It can be passed on through your genetics. So if there are twins in your family, You are more likely to have twins yourself. If you are a twin, you have a 1/17 chance of having twins yourself. If you are not a twin and do no have twins in your family, you have a 1/89 chance of being pregnant with twins (and if you had one set of twins, the chances of a second set of twins is 1/12!)
This gets a little more complicated though- Only women can have the hyper-ovulation gene. I am more likely to have twins because I am a twin, but my twin brother is NOT more likely to have twins, because he doesn't ovulate. (this seems like a "duh" point... but I need to make it anyway.). If he has a daughter, she MAY have the hyper-ovulation gene, and may be more likely to have twins.
There are a lot of twins being conceived using fertility medicine, or IVF. In this case, the mother did not hyper-ovulate naturally, so it is not genetic, and is less likely to be passed on to her children.
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Identical Twins (Mo/Mo twins & Mo/Di Twins): This happens when one egg is fertilized by one sperm, and the egg splits. There is no understanding of why an egg splits or what causes it, but it does! After the egg splits, it develops into two identical babies who started out with the exact same genetics. They will look identical. Your chance of having identical twins is 1/250. It doesn't matter if you are a twin yourself, or have had twins before. This just happens spontaneously.
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If you'd like to learn more about what can increase your likely hood of having twins, its fascinating to look up! Strange things like height, weight, race, age, and more can all increase or decrease your chances of having twins.
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