Fewer parents are seeing double in Minnesota. The number of multiple births has dropped from 2,599 babies in 2009 to 2,297 last year, the Star Tribune reports. Public health experts say the sluggish economy and improvements in infertility treatment procedures are both factors for the decline.
Preliminary data from the Minnesota Department of Health showed no quadruplets or higher births in 2012 and only 65 infants born as triplets. The figures also showed fewer twin births.
“We’ve done a very good job at almost eliminating the triplets,” Dr. Jacques Stassart, medical director of Reproductive Medicine and Infertility Associates, told the newspaper. “The next frontier is to curb the number of twins, though we’re meeting a bit of patient resistance to that.”
Nationally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the number of twin births in the United States more than doubled from 1980 to 2009, USA Today reported last January.
A drop in Minnesota’s overall birth rate has also been tied to the economy, the Pioneer Press reported in February 2011.
