What Every Surrogate Must Know About Twins & Triplets
The goal of surrogacy, of course, is to have a low risk pregnancy and healthy baby. This best way to protect your health, and the baby's health, is to have a singleton pregnancy. IVF doctors know this and encourage single embryo transfers in an attempt to avoid twin pregnancies (of course, an embryo can still split into identical twins, but that's not something we can control). Some IVF doctors are willing to transfer two embryos in certain circumstances. Of course, this increases your risk of twins--or triplets with a splitter--and thus increases the risks to you and the babies. So what are the things every surrogate needs to know about twin and triplet pregnancies?
Your health: Some of the increased risks include serious harm to your own health, including losing your fertility.
And the health of the babies: Other risks are to the babies--the most serious risk involves delivering the babies too early resulting in death or long-term disability for the babies.
It's expensive: High risk pregnancies are more expensive than low risk pregnancies. It can actually be cheaper for intended parents to pursue two separate singleton journeys than to have preemie twins.
It's traumatic: Delivering preemies is frightening. Seeing little tiny babies hooked up to all sorts of machines is never an easy experience, even when they are not your own children.
It can disqualify you from another journey: Your risks of a premature delivery skyrocket with twins, and a premature delivery will disqualify you from pursuing surrogacy again in the future. You are also at increased risk of requiring a c-section which can limit your future surrogacy opportunities. And the risks of losing your fertility entirely--by losing your uterus--go up with multiple births.
It's not your typical delivery: Two babies means you often have to deliver in an operating room, in case an immediate c-section becomes necessary. And worse, you can end up with both a vaginal delivery and a c-section. At most hospitals, triplets result in an automatic c-section. If you hoped for an easy vaginal delivery, don't count on it
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