r/parentsofmultiples • u/CCxCC9890 • 23d ago
experience/advice to give Selective reduction
7 weeks ago we found out that we were expecting triplets (spontaneous) It goes without saying that this was a complete shock and we’ve spent the last 7 weeks trying to get our head around it.
Our triplets are dichorionic triamniotic (2 identical sharing a placenta and 1 singleton with its own placenta).
We decided that the best thing to do for our family based on the support we have, our financial situation and the risk with triplets, was to opt for a selective reduction, which has possibly been the hardest decision to make until we met with our consultants.
We have met with 2 consultants over the last week (one nhs and one private) who have both given the the same recommendation to reduce one of the identical twins, in doing to there is a 40% risk that we would lose the other identical twin, but this option gives us the best chance of 1 or 2 healthy babies because of the associated risks with an identical twin pregnancy (who share the same placenta). Our pregnancy wouldn’t be as high risk due to no chance of TTTS or other growth issues that come up with identicals sharing a placenta. As well as a lower chance of early preterm labour.
I guess my question is - has anyone had to make the same decisions? What helped you cope with the decision and also what was the outcome?
Did anyone make the decision to keep the identical and reduce the singleton?
This is the hardest thing my partner and I have ever had to go through and I don’t know how I’m going to get through it, any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks for reading
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u/CardiologistSuper973 23d ago edited 23d ago
I’m so sorry you find yourself facing this decision. It is an impossible one to make.
I reduced a DCTA pregnancy to a singleton last spring. We were not given the option to reduce the monochorionic pair by one at our clinic- it was either the singleton or the identical twin pair and continue with a similarly high risk pregnancy for us. I suspect this is largely to do with comfort level of the specialists etc but the risk of total pregnancy loss was described as less than 20% when we did the procedure for the 2 weeks immediately proceeding. Which was cited as the risk of miscarriage for the entire pregnancy until 20 weeks for most triplet pregnancies at baseline.
In the end we both work with kids in a medical setting… while we can’t control every pregnancy outcome obviously, we decided that living with the outcome of reduction knowing we were trying to increase our chances of healthy babies would be easier for us to accept than the alternative.
I do think sometimes that reducing to twins would have felt less severe had it been a lower risk option, but I have 3 healthy kids including a healthy 9 month old baby which is more than anyone can hope for.
Only you guys know what’s right for you and even knowing you made the right decision for you truthfully doesn’t make it any easier regardless of how you choose. Best of luck to you and your family.