Its no surprise that in most cases, having a baby can be stressful at times. Both on us, as parents and on our bank accounts in the process. But for people having twins, triplets or more - does this “stress” just compound with each child?

I read something recently regarding a study that claimed parents of twins are more likely to have mental health problems than those of single-born babies. (You can read about the study here)

It was a small study and it tracked about 100 twins and around 700 single-born babies, with an outcome that showed the parents of twins having more depression, anxiety and other problems than parents of the single-born babies.

But that got me thinking… were they really suffering from depression and anxiety? Or was it more caused by the idea of the lack of sleep, double feedings and double diaper changes that made it seem as if these new parents were having issues?

Of course the medical concerns when having multiples can play a part in this as well. As it”’s known, women pregnant with multiples are more susceptible to medical complications — such as premature birth, diabetes and high blood pressure, but I would think these concerns (somewhat) go away once the children have been born and given a clean bill of health.

I suppose this is more relevant now than ever with the rise in twin births due to artificial reproduction techniques. Since many in-vitro fertilization procedures implant more than one embryo, there is obviously a greater chance (1-in-4) of having twins.

So with all this to consider, maybe having twins isn’t exactly like getting two for the price of one!