I’m a paediatrician and here’s how twins can have different dads

A DOCTOR has revealed how twins can have different dads. It’s a rare phenomenon but it is possible, with two ways it can happen. Newborn intensive care specialist Dr Michael Narvey took his baffled TikTok followers though the process. The 49-year-old specialist, from Winnipeg, Canada, said twins can have two different dads if “a woman […]

A DOCTOR has revealed how twins can have different dads.

It’s a rare phenomenon but it is possible, with two ways it can happen.

Newborn intensive care specialist Dr Michael Narvey took his baffled TikTok followers though the process.

The 49-year-old specialist, from Winnipeg, Canada, said twins can have two different dads if “a woman has sex with two different men prior to her ovulation and the sperm are present in the fallopian tubes when two eggs are released”.

He also explained it can happen if a woman has sex with two different men after ovulating and the sperm are then able to fertilise two eggs.

Dr Michael said it is an “exceedingly rare event” and people shouldn’t worry too much about it ever happening to them.

The video has been viewed over 15,000 times, with viewers taken with the scientific term for it, superfecundation.

One person commented: “Excuse me doc…What did you just say to me?”

Another said: “I thought you were saying a bad word.”

The process is common in other animals, like dogs, cats and cows.

It’s a deliberate tactic, employed by females to increase the chances of producing multiple offspring.

But humans, who don’t need to have lots of babies all at once, don’t tend to do this – however it can happen.

It doesn’t even need to require sex with multiple partners at the same time, or in very quick succession.

The rare event can happen if sperm survives for a few days in the female reproductive tract, and a woman produces two eggs at once.

But the odds are slim – it would mean sperm having to survive for days from both men and a double egg release in the same cycle.

Experts have previously thought that the chances could be one in 13,000 – although it’s agreed that it’s complete guesswork.

RARE CHANCE

There have only been less than ten recorded cases in the world, although there will be more that aren’t known about.

In September 2020, a woman in Wiltshire gave birth to twins conceived three weeks apart – although the boys have the same dad.

Gabriella Christmas, 30, was delighted to find out she was pregnant but at a five-week scan a shadow was spotted.

But medics told her the shadow was another baby in an extremely rare case of superfetation.

Gabriella found second twin, Ezra, was developing three weeks behind older brother, Eduardo. They were delivered together by C-section.