NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — Is it something in the water? Four newsroom staffers at WGNO-TV have twin siblings! And in fact, more Americans than ever may be seeing double these days.
CNN reports that the rate of twin births in the United States reached a record high in 2014, according to an annual report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. Out of every 1,000 births in 2014, just over 33 were twins.
WGNO News Anchor Curt Sprang has a twin brother, Chris. Curt and Chris are “fraternal” twins, which occurs when two distinct eggs are fertilized in the womb. “Identical” twins occur when one, fertilized egg divides into two. Identical twins look–naturally– identical and are always the same sex. But fraternal twins can look very different– just like any siblings in a family– and can be either male or female, or both.
“I always had somebody who was going the through the same things that I was going through– at the same time, ” says Curt, recalling the benefits of being a twin. “Like trying to get a drivers license, or trying to get a prom date!”
WGNO Meterologist Martha Spencer agrees. She says it was great to have her twin brother, Colin, to play with when they were younger. She says the best thing about being a twin as an adult is “not falling into any characteristic stereotype: first born, middle child, only child, or youngest child. We’re a division of our own.”
WGNO Web Manager Tanya Sinkovits has a twin brother, Paul. Tanya remembers that when she and Paul were in high school, she was relieved to always have “someone to walk into parties with me– someone to walk into dances with.”
And WGNO Anchor Susan Roesgen comes from a family with *two* sets of twins. Susan has a twin brother, Richard, and two other brothers, Andy and Ted, are fraternal twins also. Like Curt and Martha, Susan says she’s “grateful to have had a twin to share some of childhood’s scariest moments– like waiting for the bus on the first day of school.”
And when Susan and Richard graduated from a high school class of more than 700 students, they realized at the commencement ceremony, sitting side by side, that the only students they recognized in their row, were each other!
Check out the CDC report here: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/multiple.htm
