Parents with twins are more likely to end up divorced, broke and out of work. Married couples were 17 per cent more likely to divorce if they had twins or triplets rather than several children with gaps in between according to a study conducted by the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, commissioned by Tamba, the Twins and Multiple Births Association,.
The high costs of having multiple children seems to be one of the main causes for the large number of divorces. Two thirds of multiple-birth families said that they were significantly worse off after their babies were born, compared with 40 per cent of other parents. Nine months after giving birth, mothers of twins and triplets were 20 per cent less likely to have returned to work than mothers of single babies, the cost of childcare being largely to blame, the researchers said.
The proportion of multiple births has soared as a result of in vitro fertilization and women giving birth when they are older, according to the research. One in 65 births now results in twins or triplets compared with one in 100 in 1970.
In this regard, the results of the study are surprising; the parents of multiple birth children are older and more established. Apparently, the advantages of maturity and being established in a career fall by the wayside as a result of the demands of having multiple children.
Perhaps the comment of a mother of twins on the BaristaKids website puts in perspective the high divorce rate among multiple birth parents:
I can tell you that I am not at all surprised at the findings of the UK study. Becoming parents to twins threw my husband and I for the biggest loop of our lives. We took the stress and lack of sleep out on each other and it nearly broke us. Therapy helps a lot. So does spending money on date nights, even when you’re broke and too exhausted to go out.
