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>> Do you want me to hold that while you climb up the ladder?
I'll hold it for you.
My name is Michelle.
I have four-year-old twins.
My little cowboys, William and Andrew.
[Laughing] My doctor said he wanted to put in three
to five embryos, and I said absolutely not.
He asked me why.
I said because I want one child.
I'm only going to put in two.
And now I have twins.
All right.
Give yourself a big hug.
>> The biggest issue with the health of babies
after in vitro fertilization is multiple pregnancies.
>> Hold your hands.
>> What the public really doesn't understand,
and even physicians I think don't appreciate
to some degree is even twin pregnancies do have a much
higher chance of all kinds of complications.
And really, the goal is to have one healthy baby at a time
when we do in vitro fertilization.
>> And my twins, they were born at 32 weeks.
They were the healthiest babies
in the neonatal intensive care unit,
but they were still four pounds.
>> Multiple births increase the risk of premature birth,
which is the baby being born too early and before its time.
Premature birth can be life-threatening.
It can result in long complications for the baby,
brain disorders, and it can lead to a baby needing to be
in the neonatal intensive care unit.
That's a pretty scary thing for parents to go through.
>> They were a month in the neonatal intensive care unit.
They were fed through a tube in their nose
and it's just heartbreaking
to see your little infant having IV's in his head.
>> What we have found is that in selective groups,
in other words, patients under 35 years old
who have very good quality embryos, embryos that look
like they should be able to become a pregnancy.
In that select group, we can get over 60% chance
of them getting pregnant with just transferring one embryo.
>> If you've been trying a long time to get pregnant,
it's really hard not to become impatient.
It's really hard not to think, oh,
let's have as many babies as possible.
>> It's very depressing.
When you think that you're never going to have a baby.
For a couple years, I was really,
really depressed about it.
But, how I pictured my life.
So I cried a lot.
I fought with him a lot.
[Laughing] Because I was upset.
>> Intuitively you would think that putting more embryos back
in is better in general.
The one thing we have to remember is our goal
when patients go through in vitro fertilization,
or any other treatment modalities,
is not to get pregnant, but to have healthy children.
>> We had three implanted.
We would never do that again.
Because we could have had triplets.
And after having twins, I would never do that again.
>> There you go.
>> We've all been told that it takes a village
to raise a child.
It could take more than one village
to raise twins or triplets.
>> Do you want to get an ice cream later?
>> A mother of multiples is a marvelous multi-tasker.
[Laughing] Because what I would have to do is,
I'd get two grocery carts.
And in one grocery cart, I'd put the infant in the baby seat.
And then the other grocery cart, I'd put the other infant
in the baby seat, and I would push one and pull the other.
>> Women should really consider having a single embryo
transferred because their chances
of having a healthy pregnancy are improved.
And if you have a healthy pregnancy,
the chances of you having a healthy,
single infant are much better.
>> Are you being a bulldozer?
>> People are so kind.
They tell me my little Andrew with blue eyes
that his eyes are hypnotic,
and it just makes my heard pound with joy.
Try again.
And I'm so proud of both of them.
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