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An anthology in 20 chapters with a foreword by Louis Keith MD, PhD. (An extract from the Introduction, by Althea Hayton, Project Director of wombtwin.com) (Do you want to review this book? Download a leaflet now.) The effect on the survivor of losing a twin is largely underestimated, if not ignored. The focus, understandably enough, tends to be on the parents and their loss. Until about twenty years ago and the development of pre-natal psychology, it was generally assumed - if one thought about it at all - that there is no way a surviving twin would remember being with their twin in the first months of born life, let alone being in the womb with a co-twin who died early in pregnancy. It was thought that they would not miss or mourn for a twin they had never known. The surviving twin has a very different inner experience of the loss, as can be seen in the early chapters of this book. It stretches the imagination somewhat to learn that a dead twin, who was presumably never known to the survivor, can be the subject of a sense of grief and loss, but clearly this is the case, at least for some. Furthermore, the way that society has chosen to ignore that loss only serves to add to this distress: until quite recently there has been no vocabulary, therapy or appropriate rituals of mourning for twin survivors. To claim that one is a twin, when there is no physical proof that one's twin ever existed, is enough to disconcert anyone who relies solely on empirical data to establish the truth. To a scientist, attributing psychological problems such as depression, problems with food or suicidal thoughts to the loss of a twin many months before birth may seem at first glance to be misguided or even absurd. Yet I have chosen to such a claim. I have no physical proof that my twin ever existed, yet I believe I did indeed have a twin brother in the womb with me and he died about thirteen weeks into the pregnancy and was miscarried. I came to this realisation quite suddenly, with no proof except a deep, intuitive experience of the truth of this knowledge, which remains to me as real and sure as my own name. I have in my long education been carefully schooled into applying scientific principles to any new idea. Therefore, I set out to prove this extraordinary idea scientifically, as far as I could. I quickly discovered "vanishing twin phenomenon" as I explored obstetrics, fetal development and embryogenesis. The more I tried to prove myself wrong, the more evidence appeared that I was probably right. At last I was convinced: I had a twin. As a result of five years of research, I now have a list of indicators of a twin lost in pregnancy, which is growing ever longer as my research continues. Among these indicators are dermoid cysts, teratomas and genetic chimeras. There are unusual placentas, complicated pregnancies and premature birth. I have found fraternal twins, identical twins and mirror twins. I was told about additional fingers, ribs and bits of bowel - the residue of a lost twin. Then there is the fetus in fetu and the fetus papyraceous. Proof that your twin was lost in the early weeks of life in the womb can of course only be found in the details of your mother's pregnancy. Sadly, many of these details are not recorded or not known. One must assume that this is because they were at the time considered to be of no medical interest or importance. Now that artificially assisted reproduction methods are being used so widely, every detail of these pregnancies is painstakingly noted. Every lost embryo, gradually fading away, is clearly visible on the ultrasound screen. This is incontrovertible proof. For those without benefit of ultrasound, we have to look further for evidence of a missing twin. Clearly, there are many twin survivors who would be grateful for this medical evidence. It may simply be an announcement, usually made by mother, that they were once a twin. Parents and medical professionals are at last beginning to realise that this information is crucial to the psychological health of the survivor. | ||||
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