A worldwide study has found the number of twins being born has increased by around a third in 40 years.
Researchers from Oxford University believe the rate of twin births is now at an all-time high.
Daft Punk give us the helmets and we’ll continue the legacy! 👍🏻 pic.twitter.com/XrS3BI1hrx
— JEDWARD (@planetjedward) February 22, 2021
It's found more than 1.6million twins are being born every year.
It concluded that treatments such as IVF have led to the so-called 'twin peak' globally.
Mikey O'Brien is Head of Nursing at Sims IVF, which has clinics in Dublin, Carlow and Cork:
"Patients that have fertility treatment who are in a younger age bracket, say early 30s, they might be more susceptible to twins because they may respond to treatment in a different way."
At Dublin's Rotunda Hospital, 998 babies born in the last 6 years were twins, just under 2% of total births.
It peaked at 2.2% in 2017, with a low of 1.7% in 2019.
Mikey O'Brien says people will occasionally look to have twins when going for treatment, but adds a twin pregnancy can be a high risk:
"There are occasionally people who would love to have twins, and would love to have their two babies and never have to carry a pregnancy ever again."
Among some popular twins in Ireland are Jedward, as well as the Taoiseach Micheal Martin, who has a twin brother named Padraig.
