Twin Talks: Pregnancy and Parenting Multiple Children · New Mommy Media | Independent Podcast Network

MoDi Twins: Monochorionic Diamniotic Pregnancy

·37 min·2 clips

Twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome can push one baby into heart failure.

1. Twin Talks: Pregnancy and Parenting Multiple Children centers on monochorionic diamniotic pregnancy, which the hosts call “mono-die” and “monodi.” 2. Christine Stewart Fitzgerald hosts with Dr. Wade Schwendeman, a perinatologist at San Diego Perinatal Center and Sharp Mary Birch Hospital, because he explains the medical care behind mono-die twins. 3. The episode asks what mono-die twins are and why the diagnosis changes prenatal monitoring. 4. Dr. Schwendeman distinguishes fraternal twins from identical twins by embryo timing, placenta sharing, and amniotic sac sharing. 5. He says splitting by day 3 creates dichorionic twins, splitting by day 3 to day 7 or 8 creates monochorionic twins, and splitting after day 8 creates mono-mono twins. 6. He also notes that splitting after day 12 or 13 can produce conjoined twins, which he says were previously called Siamese twins. 7. The panel discusses that monochorionic pregnancies currently make up about 1% of pregnancies, while dichorionic twins make up about 2%. 8. Dr. Schwendeman says the rise in single-embryo transfer should reduce the total twin rate from the peak of about 3% of pregnancies. 9. He explains that ultrasound is the main way to identify placenta type and membrane thickness. 10. He says the ideal window to identify twin type is between 8 and 14 weeks, before the placenta becomes harder to distinguish. 11. Christine, Brandy Wallace, Amy Balser, and Sunny all describe how early ultrasound changed their understanding of the pregnancy. 12. Amy says IVF and emergency surgery led to finding out at 4 to 6 weeks that one embryo had split. 13. Brandy says she was told at eight weeks that the ultrasound showed one baby, then later learned she was carrying twins after a second scan. 14. Sunny says she was first told there was only one baby, then learned at 11 weeks that the sonographer had found twins during first-trimester screening. 15. Dr. Schwendeman says monochorionic twins have higher risk because placental sharing can be uneven and because blood vessel connections can produce twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome. 16. He says twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome affects about 10% to 15% of monochorionic pregnancies, and TAPS occurs in about 2% to 5%. 17. He describes the standard surveillance plan as ultrasound every two weeks from 16 weeks onward, with growth, fluid, and umbilical cord blood flow checks. 18. He also says fetal echocardiograms are recommended at about 22 weeks, and delivery is often planned for 36 to 37 weeks with twice-weekly antenatal testing starting around 32 weeks. 19. Parents of twins, especially those tracking ultrasound schedules and specialist referrals, would find this episode useful. 20. Listeners looking for entertainment or light parenting chat probably should skip it.

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