twins

Tommy Trenchard picks up coins with his toes.

Health & Safety

Siblings can share the darndest quirks — like picking up coins & keys with their toes

3:31pm May 03, 2024

by Ari Daniel

Siblings — especially twins — sometimes share the strangest traits, like throwing a ball with their head or picking up keys and crayons with their toes. Researchers want to know what's up with that.

Queue Listen Now

Twins Kehinde Adamolekun, left, and Taiwo Adamolekun, 28, attend the annual twins festival in Igbo-Ora South west Nigeria, Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022.

Health & Safety

This Nigerian city has a high birth rate of twins — and no one is sure why

5:41am October 14, 2022

by The Associated Press

Twins appear to be unusually abundant in Nigeria's southwestern city of Igbo-Ora. For the past 12 years, the community has organized an annual festival to celebrate twins.

Newborn baby cribs in a hospital nursery.

National

Opinion: Newborn blessings for a new year

8:03am January 08, 2022

by Scott Simon

NPR's Scott Simon shares the story of twins born 15 minutes apart, one just before midnight on Dec. 31, 2021, and one just after, and what their birth years might mean in the future.

Fertility treatments like in vitro fertilization led the twin birthrate to rise from the early '80s. Now the rate has started to decline among white women.

Health & Safety

Twin Birthrate Drops For First Time Since The '80s

11:28am October 03, 2019

by Emily Vaughn

The twin birthrate nearly doubled between 1980 and 2014. Now it's going down among white mothers. What's behind the change?

Some research suggests that having multiples increases a parent's risk of mental health concerns â like depression and anxiety â before and after the children are born. Don't be afraid to admit it, parents advise. Emotional support can help.

Pssst: Parenting Twins Can Be Depressing

10:11pm August 29, 2018

by Juli Fraga

Expectant parents of twins and other multiples may be ready for the joy and extra physical demands of caring for more than one baby. But few know the risk of depression and anxiety runs higher, too.

PHOTOS: People Think The Twins Of Abidjan Can Make A Wish Come True

7:00am November 25, 2017

by Maanvi Singh

Photographer Anush Babajanyan discovered an unusual belief about twins when she visited the Ivory Coast.

In her book The Virginia State Colony For Epileptics And Feebleminded, poet Molly McCully Brown explores themes of disability, eugenics and faith.

Poet Imagines Life Inside A 1910 Institution That Eugenics Built

3:27pm August 14, 2017

by Terry Gross

Molly McCully Brown, who has cerebral palsy, says that if she'd been born in a different era, she might have been sent to the "Virginia State Colony," an early landmark of the U.S. eugenics movement.

Queue Listen Now

Beyoncé unveiled her twins on Friday morning via Instagram.

Music & Culture

Beyoncé Introduces Twins Via Instagram, And There Was Much Rejoicing

10:26am July 14, 2017

Say hello to Sir Carter and Rumi.

This photo shows conjoined twins born in Syria on July 23, waiting for lifesaving surgery. Arrangements weren't made in time and the twins died on Wednesday.

Health & Safety

Syrian Conjoined Twins Die While Waiting For Lifesaving Surgery

9:19pm August 24, 2016

by Merrit Kennedy

The newborns were evacuated from a rebel stronghold to the capital, Damascus, after lengthy negotiations earlier this month. Today, they died of heart failure as they awaited surgery.

A Syrian Red Crescent team works to evacuate the conjoined twins to a hospital in Damascus on Friday.

Syrian Conjoined Twins Evacuated From Embattled Rebel Stronghold

12:53pm August 13, 2016

by Merrit Kennedy

Conjoined twin boys Moaz and Nawras have been evacuated out of one of Syria's most embattled areas for urgent medical treatment, following an international appeal to save their lives.