A Massachusetts middle school recently held a “promotion” ceremony for its graduating eighth grade students, including a staggering 23 sets of twins.
Pollard Middle School in Needham, Massachusetts, has a very large student population, Principal Tamantha Bibo told The Associated Press, but she said it’s “pretty unusual” to have so many twins in this year’s eighth-grade class.
“Usually we have five classes, maybe 10 at most,” Bibo told The Associated Press. “We have about 450 to 500 students in each grade, so this is an unusually large number.”
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She said the 23 sets of twins, along with another eighth-grader whose twin brother attends a different middle school, make up about 10 percent of the class.
The two received special recognition at a “promotion” ceremony on Wednesday, June 12, Bibo told The Associated Press.
Twenty-three sets of twins recently graduated from Pollard Middle School in Needham, Massachusetts. (Tamasa Bibbo via The Associated Press)
According to the National Center for Health Statistics, twin births in the United States occur in about 3 percent of cases, meaning the number of twins in Pollard Middle School’s eighth-grade class is more than three times higher than expected.
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It was not clear what percentage of the twins at Pollard Middle School were identical or fraternal twins.
How common are twins?
According to the UK’s National Health Service website, around one-third of twins are identical twins – the result of a single fertilised egg splitting in the womb.
The remaining two-thirds of twins are fraternal twins, meaning they are the product of two separate fertilized eggs, and are no more similar than other siblings.
Approximately 3% of all live births are twins or other multiples. (iStock)
According to the National Health Service, the occurrence of fraternal twins may be linked to genetic factors, but the chances of identical twins occurring are the same with each pregnancy.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website, the number of twin (and other multiple) births in the US began to slowly decline in 2019 after a steady rise over 30 years.
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Twins are by far the most common type of multiple birth: 114,483 twin births were recorded in the United States in 2022, according to the CDC.
That year, 2,774 sets of triplets were born in the United States, along with 121 “quadrant and higher multiple births,” according to the CDC.
Fraternal twins account for two-thirds of all twins. (iStock)
The CDC said the reasons for the increase in multiple births are not entirely clear, but may be related to a number of factors, including the mother’s age and the use of fertility treatments.
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A Malian woman currently holds the world record for the most surviving children from a single birth.
According to the Guinness World Records website, Halima Cisse gave birth to nine babies, none of whom were triplets, on May 4, 2021, at a clinic in Casablanca, Morocco.
The previous record was held by “octuplet mom” Natalie Suleman, who gave birth to octuplets on January 26, 2009.
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All nine of Cisse’s babies survived and the family returned to Mali more than a year and a half after their births, according to Guinness World Records.
The non-triplets were a surprise to Cisse too.
According to Guinness World Records, doctors in Mali initially thought she was carrying “only” seven babies.
It was only when she was transferred to a clinic in Morocco for specialized treatment that doctors realised she was pregnant with nine babies, according to Guinness World Records.
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According to the Guinness World Records report, clinic directors said the babies, who are not triplets, were born by Caesarean section at 30 weeks’ gestation and weighed between 1.1 and 2.2 pounds at birth.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
