In The Womb: Twins, Triplets and Quads

I forced myself to stay up for this show 'coz I've been wanting to watch it since it debuted on Astro 3 years ago. It was worth it! Here are some of the highlights:

1) Probability of conceiving identical quads - 1:16 000 0000

2) "Identical" twins are not really identical. A.k.a monozygotic twins, they can even be of different sexes! This happens if the fertilized egg carries an XXY chromosome, and during the split, one of the egg loses an X chromosome, while the other loses a Y; leaving it with an XY and an XX chromosome! Amazing!

3) Probability of Asians getting fraternal twins - 1:400; probability of Caucasian Americans conceiving fraternal twins - 1:88; probability of Nigerians getting fraternal twins - 1:25. Do we somehow have an inbuilt network of our ethnicity and its global spread? I mean, it appears as if nature is conspiring to slow down the Chinese from over-reproducing. 

4) You can actually give birth to twins sired by different fathers. Rare, but possible. Just like a litter of pups/kittens. 

5) Mirror-image twins occur when the egg splits late (9 days into conception). By that time, the egg has already decided its' left from right. The twins will have mirror-image sensibilities-- like one would be right-handed, and the other left-handed. Sometimes, even their organs are mirror-images, so one of the twins will have their heart on the right!

6) Womb-behaviour: In multiple births, foetuses in the womb have little real estate to themselves. Sharing a womb, separated only by placenta, chorion or sometimes, nothing, every action carries a reaction. Foetuses display their first social behaviours in the womb through play or touch. 

1. Belly-bullying: In a pair of twins, one of the twins was more aggressive than the other, constantly kicking and hitting out at the other twin. The 'victimized' twin, who is also more passive, will retire to the far end of the placenta and lay its head against it (probably for comfort). 4 years later, whenever a fight breaks out between the twins, the quieter one would retire to the bedroom and lay his head on the pillow. So sad!
   
2. Foetus-play: Another pair of twins liked to caress each other through the chorion and placing their cheeks against each other. Fast-forward to 1 year later, their favourite 'game' is to stand on either side of a thin curtain and caress each other, giggling as they do so. How precious!
   
3. One 4-D ultrasound scan showed a pair of twins sharing an amnion looking like one of the twins was kissing the other! Probably they just got tangled up with each other and the twin bumped his lips into the other's cheeks. Ah well. (Cute) accidents happen. 
   

7) The woman in labour is a rock! She's giving birth to twins and all she's doing is grimacing as they're crowning! WTF?? Oh ok. Now she's groaning. A little. Well. That makes me a little less terrified of the prospect of pushing Object A: an object roughly the size of a bowling ball, through Object B: an opening no larger than a coin slot. 

It's magic I tell you. How else would it be physically possible for the above phenomenon to take place? The miracles of Life. That's what it is.