Hard to imagine how fraternal twins result from something other than hyperovulation... you need two eggs in one month! Unless you count something like Woman A and Woman B hyperovulate at the same rate, but woman A (or couple A) is more fertile overall and thus A's two eggs in one month are more likely to make it to surviving twin status. But still you need a hyperovulation event at the start of the process.
As for inherited factors causing identical twinning, one could image some genetic factor that makes it more likely for embryos to split in early development... maybe something causing the cells to be less sticky to one another at that stage... but in fact the identical twinning rate is uniform around the world in different populations, so the evidence suggests that identical twinning is just random and there is no inherited factor that increases the odds.
Thus part gypsy, it is likely your family's history of twins is just coincidence! Well, there could have been genetic factors that caused either or both of your grandfather's (or great-grandfather's wives) to bear twins (if they were in fact fraternal), and these could have been passed on to their offspring, but it is probably not related to any particular twinning-traits carried by your grandfather or related to you being an identical twin.
Paris, I think I have to ditto neatfreak! Just concentrate on the one kid. There are so many things out of your immediate control in the parenting expedition, this is just the beginning!
I will relate the story of a woman I talked to a few years ago... She is a fraternal twin (or her mother is a twin, or both, I forget which) and she was petrified of having twins with her first two pregnancies. Both were singletons, but her second had developmental issues and she ended up quitting her job and devoting herself to getting him care for his first 5 years and when things were finally getting manageable with #2 she and her husband decided to have one more kid and by then she had completely forgotten about the twin thing. Of course, pregnancy #3 is twins, so then she had twin babies and a 5 yro that didn't walk on his own (and an older child.) This was also in the pre-IVF days when twin strollers didn't really exist. She still doesn't know how she got through her twins early years! But happily all the kids were raised and grown and out of the house when I met her.
As for inherited factors causing identical twinning, one could image some genetic factor that makes it more likely for embryos to split in early development... maybe something causing the cells to be less sticky to one another at that stage... but in fact the identical twinning rate is uniform around the world in different populations, so the evidence suggests that identical twinning is just random and there is no inherited factor that increases the odds.
Thus part gypsy, it is likely your family's history of twins is just coincidence! Well, there could have been genetic factors that caused either or both of your grandfather's (or great-grandfather's wives) to bear twins (if they were in fact fraternal), and these could have been passed on to their offspring, but it is probably not related to any particular twinning-traits carried by your grandfather or related to you being an identical twin.
Paris, I think I have to ditto neatfreak! Just concentrate on the one kid. There are so many things out of your immediate control in the parenting expedition, this is just the beginning!
I will relate the story of a woman I talked to a few years ago... She is a fraternal twin (or her mother is a twin, or both, I forget which) and she was petrified of having twins with her first two pregnancies. Both were singletons, but her second had developmental issues and she ended up quitting her job and devoting herself to getting him care for his first 5 years and when things were finally getting manageable with #2 she and her husband decided to have one more kid and by then she had completely forgotten about the twin thing. Of course, pregnancy #3 is twins, so then she had twin babies and a 5 yro that didn't walk on his own (and an older child.) This was also in the pre-IVF days when twin strollers didn't really exist. She still doesn't know how she got through her twins early years! But happily all the kids were raised and grown and out of the house when I met her.
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