Multiple births and visible birth defects in 13,000 consecutive deliveries in one Ghanaian hospital.

Abstract

The analysis of the data from this study, though not complete, has shown the following: 1) High rates of plural births may be expected in Ghanaian populations (3.21% for twins, 0.05% for triplets). 2) Hellin's law relating to the incidence of multiple births has been found to apply to a Ghanaian population. 3) Our data show that maternal age and parity have considerable effect on twinning. 4) Multiple pregnancies may not, in themselves, constitute a risk to the mother. On the other hand, the birthweight of the babies may be the cause of hazard at childbirth. Medline is the source for the citation and abstract of this record.