Having the healthiest twin pregnancy possible

David Miller, MD, Chief of Maternal Fetal Medicine, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, shares advice on how to have the healthiest twin pregnancy possible
How To Have A Healthy Twin Pregnancy - Expert Pregnancy Guide
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Having the healthiest twin pregnancy possible

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What's the best way to ensure that a twin pregnancy is as healthy as it can be? Well the first thing to do is to make sure that any medical conditions that the mother might have are controlled before even becoming pregnant. Things like diabetes or high blood pressure, or kidney disease, because things like diabetes are known to cause birth defects, and poor control of diabetes early in pregnancy can predispose to significant birth defects of the heart and the spine. Next, the best thing to do is to consider a pre-natal vitamin supplementation, particularly with folic acid because folic acid can reduce the likelihood of birth defects, particularly birth defects of the spine. Next, the most important thing is to make sure that pregnancy is known early and that early diagnosis of twin pregnancy is made, because early in pregnancy is the best time to determine whether the twins are fraternal or whether they're identical and that's tremendously important later on in pregnancy. Fraternal twins have two separate placentas, and they're the safest kind of twins to have. Identical twins can have separate placentas, they can have the same placenta, they can even have the same gestational sac, or in rare conditions, identical twins can actually be conjoined. It's very important to know early on because the management later on in pregnancy is going to depend heavily on the type of twin pregnancy that you have.

David Miller, MD, Chief of Maternal Fetal Medicine, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, shares advice on how to have the healthiest twin pregnancy possible

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David Miller, MD

Chief of Maternal Fetal Medicine, Children's Hospital Los Angeles

David A. Miller, MD, is Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California and Children's Hospital Los Angeles.  He is the Chief of Maternal Fetal Medicine at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and the Director of the CHLA-USC Institute for Maternal Fetal Health, a unique alliance of medical leaders from Children's Hospital Los Angeles and USC, specializing in interdisciplinary diagnosis and treatment of complex fetal abnormalities.  Dr. Miller graduated from USC, attended medical school at the University of Arkansas, did his internship and residency at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and came back to USC for fellowship training in Maternal-Fetal Medicine (Perinatology).  He has been a researcher, clinician and educator at USC for more than 20 years.  Dr. Miller has published extensively in the area of Maternal-Fetal Medicine and has won numerous awards and honors including Best Doctors in America from 2001-present.

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