Vanishing Twin Syndrome
Vanishing Twin Syndrome is an issue that has been a discovery for many of our clients. It affects people in so many ways. Read the following pages and you may connect with the stories here. Would you like to come to one of our retreats and work through this? Make that first step now by clicking here and make a booking. Also you may ring Marg on her mobile 0439 407 909 to discuss further.
Symptoms - Who remembers? - True stories -Therapy - One example -Bibiography
Latest book on Vanishing Twin Syndrome
The following is the text of a review written about this book;
This book will be the first printed book to be published in English about the subjective experience of being a wombtwin survivor, ( ie the sole survivor of a twin or multiple pregnancy.)
When a twin dies during pregnancy, this experience can leave a vague but profound sense of loss in the mind of the survivor. Here is refl ected current, ground-breaking research into the death of a twin, both at birth and before, plus stories and poetry written by the survivors themselves.
This extraordinary collection of twenty articles about the death of a twin from a variety of perspectives reveals the astonishing truth of how it can actually feel to be the survivor when your twin has died in the womb.
As far as I am aware, there is no book of any kind that deals with how it feels to be the survivor of “vanishing twin” syndrome, or to have lost your twin in the womb through fetal death, miscarriage, abortion or selective fetocide. It has been assumed for a very long time that the unborn child is incapable of awareness, but science is now beginning to reveal the extent to which certain intrauterine experiences, including the loss of a twin, may have an influence on one's the psychological make up.
This book will hopefully become a useful text for those who are seeking explanations for psychological distress of various kinds, which may possibly be attributed to the loss of a twin in the womb - provided of course that one is aware of that possibility. Ultimately, being a wombtwin survivor is to experience a kind of low level, perpetual, unresolved sense of suffering. Once the true cause of that suffering is realised, then the healing can begin.
Our founding director, Dr John James, put together the work that he, Hilary and Marg have done on the Vanishing Twin at The Crucible Centre. Should you wish to purchase a copy (Australian Dollars $45 plus postage & handling) please order though our contact page.
Medical model
Twins naturally occur in one birth in seventy. The era of assisted reproductive technology and the trend toward delayed childbirth have dramatically increased multiple births so that the incidence of twins is now 1 in 40 births.
Vanishing Twin Syndrome (VTS) occurs when one of a set of twin fœtuses apparently disappears from the womb during pregnancy. The mother usually does not know this has happened. Superficially there seem to be no after-effects for either the mother or the survivor.
VTS was first described by Stoeckel in 1945, but doctors have been researching the physical side of VTS only since the mid-1980s. It was brought to light when ultrasounds showed two fœtuses in the early months of pregnancy, and only one later.
Medical research has indicated that at least one in eight births were conceived as twins, though only one in seventy survive as twins. Because ultrasounds are seldom effective before six weeks, and twin-loss may occur then, this figure may be much higher.
In assisted ovulation pregnancies almost half of multiple pregnancies result in twins.
In our clinical experience 25-30 percent of all clients have had a twin, though the traumas this leaves behind may have predisposed these people to join in therapy more than those who were not.
Loss usually occurs in the first 9 weeks, which may be the most common cause of first trimester bleeding. Losses later in the pregnancy will usually result in some fœtal material being produced when the co-twin is born. It occurs most often in older mothers, with equal frequency in monozygotic and dizygotic twins.
There are physical consequences. When death occurs the fœtal tissue will be
- absorbed into the other twin
- into the placenta to be absorbed by the mother
- into the mother, when the only evidence is vaginal bleeding or cramping.
- Discharged, and the mother may remember having miscarried
- occasionally the remains may be retained in the womb, called the fœtus papyraceous.
One usually has the impression that the twin has just vanished. Though there seem to be no short-term problems for the mother, evidence from clients suggests that in some cases (presumably where the fœtus has been absorbed into the mother's system) the mother will develop serious teeth trouble over the next decade or so, and show signs of toxic poisoning that may affect the bones and some body functions, and may cause ulcers.
Often it is the male who dies, but certainly not always.
The mother needs to deal with the unconscious grief, and seldom does. It is good for the parents to acknowledge the loss of the child, as well as the joy at the birth of the co-twin. There is also the loss from whatever feelings the parents may have had about their own wish to be parents of twins.
A VTS birth may result in a number of medical problems for the co-twin, as there is a higher risk of
- The spastic form of cerebral palsy - a risk of one in ten.
- Rarely extra toes or fingers, extra organs such as having 3 kidneys
- Sexual identity confusion
- Eating disorders, allergies
- Short-sighted, astigmatism
- Sensitive skin, eczema
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