Delivery Interval
A 15-year German study of 8,220 vaginally delivered twins (that is, 4,110 pregnancies) in Hesse yielded a mean delivery time interval of 13.5 minutes. The delivery interval between the twins was measured as follows:
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- Within 15 minutes: 75.8%
- 16-30 minutes: 16.4%
- 31-45 minutes: 4.3%
- 46-60 minutes: 1.7%
- Over 60 minutes: 1.8% (72 instances)
The study stated that the occurrence of complications "was found to be more likely with increasing twin-to-twin delivery time interval" and suggested that the interval be kept short, though it noted that the study did not examine causes of complications and did not control for factors such as the level of experience of the obstetrician, the wish of the women giving birth, or the "management strategies" of the procedure of delivering the second twin.
A longer delivery interval can lead to twins being born in different places. In one instance a woman in the north of England gave birth unexpectedly to a baby at home; she was rushed to the nearest hospital, which was in Scotland, where she gave birth to the second twin an hour and a half later. One twin is English, and the other Scottish, although both share British nationality.
Read more about this topic: Twin
Famous quotes containing the words delivery and/or interval:
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—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“I was interested to see how a pioneer lived on this side of the country. His life is in some respects more adventurous than that of his brother in the West; for he contends with winter as well as the wilderness, and there is a greater interval of time at least between him and the army which is to follow. Here immigration is a tide which may ebb when it has swept away the pines; there it is not a tide, but an inundation, and roads and other improvements come steadily rushing after.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)