Disclaimer: Skip to the bottom of this post if you don’t care about reading yet another twin fact and are only here to look at cute pictures of Samantha and Amelia!
At the park, yesterday, a few of the other moms were asking some of the typical twin questions people usually ask. After asking if the twins were identical, one mom asked if twins ran in my family (yes, they run at lightning speed all over the place!) The assumption behind this question is usually that if I did have twins in the family, that would help explain why I had twins since there must be some kind of genetic factor there.
First, I explained that while twins don’t run in my family, Jake has two sisters with twins, one with one set and another with two sets. However, that doesn’t really have anything to do with our twins since A) Any genetic predisposition to having twins runs on the maternal side and B) Since Samantha and Amelia are identical twins and not fraternal, there actually is no genetic link at all.
Fraternal twins result from two eggs dropping and being fertilized, and scientists believe some women have genetic predispositions to dropping multiple eggs in the first place. Scientists don’t know, however, what factors, if any at all, lead to one fertilized egg splitting and becoming identical twins. So, there’s no genetic factors in play with Samantha and Amelia.
“I never knew that,” exclaimed a few of the moms.
Just educating the world about twins, one fellow park mom at a time!
Navigating park politics is a post for another day.
Lots of love,
