That is the technical term.
"Monozygotic twins, frequently referred to as identical twins, occur when a single egg is fertilized to form one zygote (monozygotic) which then divides into two separate embryos.
There are an estimated 10 million identical twins and triplets in the world today.
Monozygotic twinning occurs in birthing at a rate of about three in every 1000 deliveries worldwide, regardless of race.
The likelihood of a single fertilization resulting in MZ twins is uniformly distributed in all populations around the world. This is in marked contrast to DZ twinning, which ranges from about six per thousand births in Japan (almost similar to the rate of MZ twins, which is around 4–5) to 15 and more per thousand in some parts of India and up to 24 in the US, which might mainly be due to IVF (in vitro fertilisation). The exact cause for the splitting of a zygote or embryo is unknown.
In-vitro fertilization techniques are more likely to create twins. Only about three pairs of twins per 1,000 deliveries occur as a result of natural conception, while for IVF deliveries, there are nearly 21 pairs of twins for every 1,000."
I can almost 100% confirm that ours happened on the first try. Crazy huh? Super sperm.
Oh and before you ask, there was NO IVF for us, we didn't even consider going down that road because it all happened so quickly.
Can't wait to tell my kids how lucky they are!!
Schaubie, is there a good chance that they are in fact identical? THAT WOULD BE AWESOME.
ReplyDeleteAll signs point to YES - identical.
ReplyDeleteHowever, they COULD still be a boy/girl split... which seems odd, but in fact possible.