When I was going through fertility treatments, I kind of thought becoming pregnant with twins would be great. I would get a "two for one" deal and not have to worry about conceiving a second time. Twins actually run in my family, so I thought it would be great.

However, I was not willing to try in vitro fertilization (IVF) because, at the time I was going through fertility treatments, multiples of three or more was too common for my taste. I did not want to carry a "litter" inside of me, and I knew I could not handle taking care of three newborn babies at once.

The article The Real Risk of Multiples talks about what is "wrong" with having multiples by outlining the health risks to both the mother and the babies. The article also talks about which fertility treatments are more likely to result in multiples.

I have some friends who have given birth to twins. Most of them did not go through fertility treatments although one couple did. Parenting twins is hard work. One parent says that the first three months of her daughters' lives is one big blur because she was constantly meeting their needs with very little break. She felt a lot of pressure to make them feel secure. She reasoned that, if they were different ages and both cried at the same time, she could go to the younger one because the older child would already know that mommy loved her. However, with two new babies needing their mother, how could she choose which one to tend to first?

My friends with twins love that their children have built-in playmates. However, twins also come with double the cost because you need two of everything (car seats, cribs, clothing, etc.) at the same time. You also have special issues to consider that most parents do not face, from whether to keep the multiples in the same crib to whether to keep them in the same class at school.

I knew a man whose wife became pregnant with triplets after fertility treatments. Whenever people would ask him what he was going to do with three children, he would say, "I am going to thank God for every one of them." That's the attitude you need to survive raising multiples.

Photo credit: Lynda Bernhardt