A question on vanishing twins...

karenandjeff

My SIL has identical twins and brought up something about how twins can vanish.  Completely freaked me out.  Both of our twins look great so far, we have had two great ultra sounds and I am ten weeks today.  Please tell me we are passed the point of one my two angels vanishing on me!!!

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Vanishing twin syndrome is a fancy way to say that you m/c a twin and the twin was reabsorbed (thus vanishing).  Just like any m/c, the later you are, especially after HB, your chances go down.  Many never know/would know they were pg with twins if they never received an early u/s, they'd assume that the healthy baby at their big u/s or the healthy baby they delivered was conceived as a singleton.

karenandjeff

Aussie*s_Mom:

Vanishing twin syndrome is a fancy way to say that you m/c a twin and the twin was reabsorbed (thus vanishing).  Just like any m/c, the later you are, especially after HB, your chances go down.  Many never know/would know they were pg with twins if they never received an early u/s, they'd assume that the healthy baby at their big u/s or the healthy baby they delivered was conceived as a singleton.

Thanks, I figured as much but just wanted to confirm with the experts!   The reason I am so concerned is because I have had 4 miscarriages so I am just naturally apprehensive about losing one. 

McGibbon51311

I asked my OB about this at my last visit. Her response was: vanishing twin syndrome is rather rare and to not worry about it in general. And since I had already had an u/s where they heard the heartbeats, it lowered the chances even more. Usually when it is going to happen, it happens very early on, around 4-5 weeks. Like the pp said, most people didn't even know that they were carrying two because it happens so early on. That definitely helped me to not worry!

HaleyLady

I had been worrying about this recently, but I as well heard after you see the heartbeats the risk goes down quite a bit.

Waiting4Fred

I was horrible paranoid about it until my 12 weeks ultrasound as well.  When I expressed my concern then just before the ultrasound, dr. said it's rare and that after you see a heartbeat, it doesn't happen often.  In fact, I haven't seen many (if any) posts on here where somewhere has seen the heartbeat, had good ultrasounds, then has a true vanishing twin.