Maternal and neonatal variables in twins: an epidemiological approach

Population studies on human twinning are scarce in Argentina. In order to analyze frequencies and certain maternal and neonatal variables related to twin births, we studied a series of 69.678 consecutive newborns with 500 g of weight and over, which occurred at a public hospital in the province Buenos Aires, during 14 years (1982-1995). The frequency of twin births (10 per 1000 deliveries) and sex ratio were similar to other studies reported in Caucasian population. Maternal age and order of gravity/parity were positively correlated with twinning rates, more markedly so in dissimilar sex-pairs. Stillbirths and neonatal deaths were more frequent in twins than in singletons, but less frequent when comparing groups of same weight. Congenital malformations were not found to be significantly more frequent in twins than in the total newborn population. However, their occurrence, predominantly in like-sexed pairs and the concordance for defect type in doubly affected same-sex pairs, suggests that monozygotic twinning carries an increased risk for malformation.