A farming community in southwest Nigeria has been named the The Land of Twins because almost all the babies born here are twins.
And, this even has the experts baffled.
Community leader Olayide Akinyemi, a 71-year-old father of 12, reveals that for generations, people in Igbo-Ora had been welcoming twins and not single children into the family.
“There is hardly a family here without a set of twins. My father had 10 sets, while I had three sets,” China Daily quoted him, as saying.
Overall, almost 5 percent of all Yoruba births produce twins, a Belgian study has now found. The figure is just around 1.2 percent for Western Europe and 0.8 percent for Japan.
They believe that one of the reasons may be yam consumption in West Africa.
Yams contain a natural hormone phytoestrogen which may stimulate the ovaries to produce an egg from each side.
However, while some of Igbo-Ora’s residents believe that this might be a good theory, others are not so sure.
“We eat a lot of okro leaf or Ilasa soup. We also consume a lot of agida (yam). This diet influences multiple births,” Akinyemi said.
“The real cause of the phenomenon has not been medically found,” said Akin Odukogbe, a senior consultant gynaecologist with the University Teaching Hospital (UCH) in Ibadan, the nearest big town. (ANI)
Friday, 16 November 2007
Quintuplets mother 'advised to abort'
Doctors in Russia urged a woman pregnant with quintuplets to have selective terminations, it has emerged.
The woman has since given birth to the first set of quintuplets to be born in Britain for 10 years. She had had a drug-based fertility treatment which makes multiple births more likely, but refused to have abortions on religious grounds.
The mother, a 29-year-old music teacher who does not wish to be named, gave birth to five girls 14 weeks prematurely at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford on Saturday.
They were born by caesarean section and their weights range from 1lb 13oz to 2lb 2oz.
The babies are said to be doing well and are being cared for in intensive care units at the John Radcliffe and at Queen Charlotte's Hospital in west London.
The woman and her husband had travelled to Oxford after doctors in Russia advised her to have a selective reduction, in which some of the foetuses are aborted to give the remaining ones a better chance of survival.
The treatment was paid for by wellwishers in Russia. It is thought around eight in 10 babies born so early survive.
Mr Lawrence Impey, an obstetrician who led her care, said: "I'm very pleased to be able to help this delightful family.
"Mother is recovering well and the babies are doing well."
The babies will be cared for in Britain until they are strong enough to go home.
Their mother received intensive treatment in recent weeks to prevent her from delivering even earlier.
The woman has since given birth to the first set of quintuplets to be born in Britain for 10 years. She had had a drug-based fertility treatment which makes multiple births more likely, but refused to have abortions on religious grounds.
The mother, a 29-year-old music teacher who does not wish to be named, gave birth to five girls 14 weeks prematurely at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford on Saturday.
They were born by caesarean section and their weights range from 1lb 13oz to 2lb 2oz.
The babies are said to be doing well and are being cared for in intensive care units at the John Radcliffe and at Queen Charlotte's Hospital in west London.
The woman and her husband had travelled to Oxford after doctors in Russia advised her to have a selective reduction, in which some of the foetuses are aborted to give the remaining ones a better chance of survival.
The treatment was paid for by wellwishers in Russia. It is thought around eight in 10 babies born so early survive.
Mr Lawrence Impey, an obstetrician who led her care, said: "I'm very pleased to be able to help this delightful family.
"Mother is recovering well and the babies are doing well."
The babies will be cared for in Britain until they are strong enough to go home.
Their mother received intensive treatment in recent weeks to prevent her from delivering even earlier.
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