Tomorrow I have to go to the police so they can take my twins' fingerprints and tell me which one is which
.
The tweet from Sofía Rodríguez, mother of the monochorionic twins Valentín and Lorenzo, generated more than seven million interactions and brought to center stage the complications that parents face in order to distinguish their
identical children
.
The model and panelist Cinthia Fernández also recognized on TV that she confuses her twins and to avoid further mistakes, she implemented "the necklace method".
Katrina, a Twitter user, recounted the same thing: "I am the mother of twins, since they were born I named them according to their weight and I left them with the identification bracelets from the clinic until I changed them for silver ones engraved with their names."
More twin births
According to data from the Ministry of Health, in Argentina there are approximately 550,000 births per year (2020).
Of these,
10,000 are twins
, 2%.
Of that portion of twins,
approximately 3,300 are identical
.
"
Multiple pregnancies
have increased over the years due to factors such as older maternal age (the increase in the FHS hormone can induce double ovulations), the use of assisted reproductive methods, and a family history of twins," develops Florencia Chiarelli, pediatrician and coordinator of Neonatology at the Trinidad Ramos Mejía Sanatorium, in dialogue with
Clarín.
Thus, more and more mothers and fathers for two are going through the same situation that Sofia exposed virally.
"What do you want most in the world?" Pía López Cano (54) asked her daughter María Elena almost a decade ago.
"A little brother, but you don't have a boyfriend to give you the seed," the little girl replied.
To fulfill the dream of both, Pía gave a long
legal battle
- which she told
Clarín
at the time - and she achieved motherhood for the second time at 48 years of age.
Pía López Cano when she posed with her newborn twins for Clarín, in April 2016. Archive Photo
Bautista (6) and Beltrán (6), identical twins, were born on March 23, 2016. Pía now says that her case was exceptional for legal reasons, but not because of the doubts and confusion that lots of mothers have, as the tweet exposed. Sofia's viral video and the responses she received.
López Cano told her obstetrician that the first baby to be delivered would be Beltrán.
At first, he was too afraid to mix them up and start calling one by the other's name.
But today he can already distinguish which is which because of the
difference in weight and personalities
they have.
Pía López with her three children, the twins and María Elena, now 18 years old.
Photo Marcelo Carroll
"Beltrán has a stain in his groin and Bautista has gills (a kind of hole that hasn't finished closing) in his ear. But I needed to put something on them outside, outside of their clothes, to be able to tell them apart when they were dressed. At the clinic,
I put a yellow Easter egg ribbon on
Beltrán's
foot. Later, at the haberdashery I bought a blue baby ribbon and a red one to put on their wrist. The funny thing is that today, one likes color red and the other blue”, he tells this newspaper.
identical.
He pía differentiated Bautista and Beltrán with bottles and pacifiers.
Another system that helped Pía to distinguish her children was
that of pacifiers and bottles
.
Beltrán used the blue set while Bautista, the white set.
However, María Elena (18), the older sister of the children, never doubted their identities.
“They were always different in face.
One is rounder than the other.
The tone of voice is different, too,” she says.
She tweeted that she disagreed:
"They are identical, but she differentiated them from the time they were born
. "
Marta Villalba (59) is the mother of Juan Ignacio (12) and Galo Bautista (12).
The seven-month-olds were born on October 28, 2010, but Marta was able to meet the second two days later.
“The delivery was complicated and it took me two days to recover,” she says.
“In the womb, one was located on the right side and the other on the left.
One was prepared to go head down and the other tail down.
Due to the positions,
I decided that the one on the right side would be Juan Ignacio and the one on the left side, Galo Bautista
”, he confesses.
Juan Ignacio and Galo Bautista are the identical twins of Marta Villalba.
And he continues: “At first it is difficult because they are very similar and you have to look at them twice.
In the crib
I placed them in the same position in which they were inside the belly
and thus we were able to differentiate who was who.
In addition, we took the trouble to write everything down in a notebook so as not to get confused and, for example, prevent one from receiving the wrong medication or from going without food."
Marta admits that there is a psychological issue and not just a practical one in this issue of confusion: "One feels very bad emotionally. I felt
like I was a bad mom for not being able to tell them apart at first
."
For her, too, the pacifier was a help: Galo did not use it.
And they had different hairstyles, one had bangs and the other didn't.
“One is enthralled looking at his children and
over time you learn to recognize them
.
In addition, when they grew up, the color of their eyes was defined: Juan Ignacio has them green and Galo, brown, ”she points out.
Juan Ignacio (left) and Galo Bautista (right), at two and a half years old.
Today they turned 12.
However,
at school they continue to confuse them
.
“Both of them used to have long hair, but now one of them cut it off.
They are my two blessings ”, she distinguishes.
"My husband and I never confused them but
we were terrified of being wrong
," says Constanza Preti (39), mother of the twins Ruby and Luna (3) who were born in March 2020 in New York.
Through a genetic test, she knew that her daughters would be identical from before birth.
Ruby (left) and Luna (right) are the 3-year-old twins born to Constanza Preti.
They were born in March 2020.
At the hospital, they were able to tell them apart by the bracelet they each wore.
“When we were discharged I left them on, but after two days at home they had already gained weight and they were getting too tight, so we had to take them off.
For fear of confusing them, with organic enamel for children I decided
to paint one toenail blue and the other pink
”, he tells
Clarín
.
And he admits that in the routine he discovered that they were not the same.
"For me, one has a longer face than the other, the shape of the ears is different, and one had a mini birthmark on the nape of the neck that went away after months," she mentions.
Constanza painted their toenails with children's organic nail polish to be able to tell them apart.
During the first months, to differentiate them quickly, he also chose to dress one in red, pink and orange tones;
and the other with blue and green color.
"When she had to cut their hair for the first time, one asked for bangs and the other didn't, so no one ever got the wrong name again," she recalls.
How to differentiate newborn twins?
All newborns should be identified immediately and, if possible, before umbilical cord ligation.
In multiple births,
this plays a key role
as it avoids possible confusion for both medical staff and parents.
“Parents communicate the name of each of their unborn children and identification bracelets are made (2 per baby) that are always placed in the presence of one or both of them.
Fingerprints are also important
because they are unique and unrepeatable in each person”, explains Chiarelli.
And he adds: “In addition, a blood sample is taken to obtain the blood group of each baby.
In monochorionic twins (they share a placenta and the genetic information because the fertilized egg split in two) it will be the same”.
"The
formation of fingerprints
depends on DNA, epigenetics and the influence of the environment because twins can have different stimuli: level of skin friction, position inside the uterus and length of the cord", details Sergio Pasqualini, reproductive medicine specialist.
Learn to differentiate them
María Sofía Casares is a university technician in Child Care and Parenting.
She states that, in general, the problem occurs at the time of discharge, when the bracelet with the data of each twin is removed from the babies.
For this reason, she suggests that each one have different clothes, that parents can look at them closely to find some small characteristic that differentiates them and helps identify them.
But she admits that with identical twins it's hard enough.
“Likewise,
over time the mapadres will know their children well
and each one will express themselves in a different way.
Thus, they will identify them more easily.
But it is essential to have the necessary accompaniment and help to be able to go through the first moments.
The beginning of life, exterogestation and absolute dependence are
stages of great demand and intensity that imply few hours of sleep
”, he insists.
It also suggests relating to peer groups.
“With other couples who are going through the same situation or have already gone through the same thing, they will find very valuable information, tips and accompaniment from the experiential experience that is super rich”, she rounds off.
The specialists consulted refer that during the joint hospitalization of parents with their babies,
recommendations are offered to reduce the possibility of confusion
.
Some examples: use different colored clothes, put different pacifiers on them, establish the places that each one will occupy with a name (safety seat, stroller, cribs, etc.).
In the case of needing to supplement breastfeeding with infant formula, they warn that
it is key to correctly identify the bottles
.
“Situations of confusion often occur, some are funny, such as feeding the same one twice, bathing it again;
and others that reverse a certain risk such as medication for those who do not need it.
In general, they are common at the beginning, when
parents are still bonding with their children
”, Chiarelli closes.
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