Becoming parents

Eva and Patricia want to become parents. Today, they have gone to a clinic to get help. A midwife or doctor places sperm from a donor into Eva’s vagina. This is an insemination, and if it succeeds she’ll get pregnant. Eva and Patricia hope for the best.

Now Eva’s period is late. Is she pregnant? The test shows … plus! The test is positive! Eva is pregnant!

In nine months, their child will be born! But they can’t be totally certain. Sometimes the foetus dies, and is rejected by the body. This is called miscarriage, and during the first weeks of pregnancy it is not unusual. Usually it’s due to the foetus not developing like it is supposed to.

But for Eva and Patricia it seems to go well. And they are overjoyed, while at the same time they know that their lives will be changed profoundly. This is fun and a bit scary at the same time. It’s time for an examination. Eva and Patricia will see images from inside the womb.

This is an ultrasound scan. And on the images they see … not only one child. There are two foetuses in the womb. They’re going to have have twins. Twins can develop in two ways.

Sometimes it happens that two eggs leave the ovaries and move through the fallopian tubes at the same time. If both eggs are fertilised two embryos are created which can grow at the same time in the womb. They become dizygotic twins. Dizygotic twins can have the same sex or different sex, just like ordinary siblings. But it can also occur that one embryo happens to divide into two parts.

Each part starts to develop into a separate foetus. This is what happened in Eva’s uterus. Then monozygotic twins are developed. Monozygotic twins are always very similar, and of the same sex. Dizygotic twins are no more similar to each other than ordinary siblings.

To begin with Eva feels sick from being pregnant. She’s tired and hungry. After a few months, the sickness passes. Eva feels better, and the foetuses grow as they should. When the birth is approaching, Eva’s belly is large and heavy to carry around.

And the joints in the pelvis start to soften, so that the bones can move apart from each other. This loosening of the pelvis makes it easier for children to come out when they are born. It can be rather painful, and that’s how it is for Eva. Once again it’s tough being pregnant, but Patricia tries to support Eva as much as she can. During labour, many things can happen.

The child might not get enough oxygen, or the mother might get ill. In this case the child needs to be taken out by an operation, quickly. The doctor cuts open the mother’s uterus, to get the child out. This is an emergency caesarian section. But caesarian sections can also be planned.

There could be several reasons for this, such as the child being wrongly positioned in the womb, or twins are to be born. As with Eva and Patricia: They have decided on a caesarian section. Now it’s time. Eva gets anaesthesia, and the doctor performs the operation. Eva and Patricia have become parents.

Glands in Eva’s breasts now produce milk. In the breast milk there is nutrition that helps the children to grow and develop. The children breastfeed every three hours, and they grow quickly. In four months they double their weight. The twins can’t sit or talk when they are born.

But they can shout, which they do when they need food or sleep or are in some kind of pain. The children learn every day. After six months the twins can sit, and play with blocks. After one year they can stand up and walk. And now they also utter their first words.

Children depend on grown-ups for a long time. They need tenderness and body contact in order to feel well. And this, the twins get from Eva and Patricia.