News about the healthy birth of monoamniotic (sharing the same amniotic sac) twin girls in Ohio in May went viral for a number of reasons. First, these births are rare (one in every 10,000 births) and often pose significant health risks to the unborn twins. The fetuses share a placenta and an amniotic sac but have separate umbilical cords. If unmonitored, strangulation might happen. Naturally everyone was relieved and pleased about the positive outcome. However, most people seemed to be […]
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Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors
I had the pleasure of attending a wonderful production of The Comedy of Errors a few weeks ago at the Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton, Virginia. Both Twelfth Night and The Comedy of Errors are Shakespearean comedies in which themes about twins shape the plot, the characters, and the antics of the plays. The Comedy of Errors, one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays, involves identical twin men who were separated at birth. When one twin unknowingly arrives in the town where his […]
Missing Out on the Good Times
During one of my recent talks to a Moms of Multiples group, I asked the audience to help me understand why organizing alone time with each twin can be an emotional hurdle. One woman related that alone time with each twin interferes with family time, especially during the weekends when full-time working parents can spend time together with their children. Another woman shared her concerns in a delightfully humorous way. She explained that her well-intentioned, engineer-minded husband was not the […]
Twinfest! A Celebration of Twin Togetherness
Since there are very few gatherings of adult twins, in my presentations, I customarily speak to parents of multiples. So, it was quite a pleasure and an honor to talk to an audience of adult twins who had gathered at the University of Washington to celebrate TwinFest!—the first annual celebration for twins who participate in the university’s Twin Registry. I spoke about my research, my philosophy, and my own experiences of being a twin. I shared how my twin sister, […]
Pedagogy Or Pathology?
Following my radio interview on KQED, in San Francisco, a listener wrote an e-mail chastising me for propagating unnecessarily negative views about twin development. Moreover, my colleague Dr. Nancy Segal also expressed a similar viewpoint by stating that statistics show that twins are no more at risk for mental health issues than anyone else in the population. She, too, seemed uncomfortable about my desire to highlight adult twin challenges. While I am well aware that most twin relationships are healthy […]