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The Fate of “Small Twins”: A Four-year Follow-up Study of Low Birthweight and Prematurely Born Twins

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

B. Alin Åkerman  and
P.A. Thomassen
B. Alin Åkerman*
Affiliation:
Department of Special Education, Stockholm Institute of Education
P.A. Thomassen
Affiliation:
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Karolinska Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden
*
Department of Special Education, Stockholm Institute of Education, P.O. Box 47308, S-100 74 Stockholm, Sweden

Abstract

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This follow-up study of twins includes 35 families from the Stockholm area. One section concerns the physical and mental development of the twins. The other sections compare the development of the children with their parents' expectations of them and the parents' feelings about the delivery. Seven twin pairs (20%) in the total group were born before 37 complete gestational weeks. Thirty-seven of the twins weighed less than 2,500g at birth; of these, 23 (9 boys and 14 girls) weighed less than 2,500g, although they were born after 37 gestational weeks. At four years of age, 22 of the 68 twins still showed some impairment of locomotor, language/speech and emotional development, as assessed by the Griffiths Mental Development Scales. All the prematurely born and small-for-date infants were in this group. There also seems to be a relationship between developmental problems and the mother's negative or ambivalent expectations concerning the twin pregnancy.

Keywords

TwinsPrematurityLow birthweightLocomotor developmentLanguage/Speech developmentMental developmentPerformance
Type
Research Article
Information
Acta geneticae medicae et gemellologiae: twin research , Volume 41 , Issue 2-3 , July 1992 , pp. 97 - 104
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society for Twin Studies 1992

References

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