BALTIMORE (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Twin births are on the rise. Over 130,000 twins are born each year in the United States alone. With more of these births come more complications. A life-saving procedure is keeping identical babies safe.
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When Lori Titus found out she was having not one baby, not two babies, but three identical babies, she was stunned.
"It was a big shock at first, but once I got used to the idea, I was just like, cool, we're having three babies," Titus told Ivanhoe.
But shock turned to concern when her doctor spotted a serious problem.
"I was about 18 weeks pregnant, and he sat me down and said, 'Listen, if we don't do something, your babies are going to die,'" Titus said.
Whether it's triplets or twins, identical babies share the same placenta and are at risk of a life-threatening complication called twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome, or TTTS.
"One baby sends blood via blood vessel connections that are on the surface of the placenta to the other baby, so one baby loses blood, and the other baby has too much blood volume," Ahmet Baschat, M.D., a maternal fetal medicine specialist at University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, told Ivanhoe.
To fix the problem, maternal fetal medicine specialists insert a tiny scope into the surface of the placenta. A camera allows doctors to see each baby and the network of blood vessels. A laser beam then seals shut any shared blood vessels -- stopping blood flow between babies.
"It gives the babies a chance at survival because you're doing a single procedure," Dr. Baschat said.
The procedure was more difficult for Titus' triplets.
"You're not done just by lasering one pair," Dr. Baschat said. "You have to laser the connection between all three."
It was a triple success, and now Titus is on to bigger challenges.
"The most challenging part right now, it's got to be the lack of sleep," Titus said. "I just look at their little faces and it's all worth it."
According to some research, the odds of having identical triplets can be as high as one in 200 million. To find out more about TTTS and a list of treatment centers across the country, go to TTTSfoundation.org.
Sharon Boston
Media Relations
University of Maryland Medical Center and
University of Maryland School of Medicine
22 South Greene Street
Baltimore, MD 21201-1595
(410) 328-8919
sboston@umm.edu
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