Three sets of twins what are the odds?

Question

I was shopping with my mom the other day and the wierdest thing happend. I was leaving the shoe store with my mom and there was identical twins(boys). Walking down the sidewalk I saw another set of twins identical they were toddlers(girls and very cute). I didn't say anything to my mom but i was thinking this pretty odd. Then when we got to our car we helped a lady because her hands were full and she was dropping stuff everywhere. Well she had twins too! Infants a boy and girl! This was wierd to me. What are the chances of seeing that many sets of twins in ten minutes. We talked about this on the way home my mom suggested it could be a omen or sign of something that is going to happen. Im really curious about it so if anyone knows what it means tell me please. Oh yeah we live in a small populated area it made it even more odd. Twins do run in my family on my moms side my grandpa is a twin. Some other people to it skips a generation from what it seems. I pretty sure im not pregnant!!!

Answer 1

I don't think it's that unusual.  I'm a twin and I used to think it was this amazing and special thing until I started school.  As I got older, I saw it all of the time and I had to start considering that being one of a pair wasn't "special" just another trick of biology.  

Multiple births used to be much more dangerous and the babies had much greater chances of medical problems than singletons.  Consequently, multiples didn't survive as often.  However, these days you see more multiples because of fertility meds but that only accounts for fraternal twins.  Not all fraternals are fertility induced, of course, but identicals are not fertility induced because the fertility treatments help increase the number of eggs ovulated thereby increasing the chances of fraternal twins, triplets, etc..  

A higher incidence of identicals today can be credited to medical science which helps extend the pregnancies of mothers with multiples, helps the babies to be born healthier, and can save the lives of multiples who are born in medical jeopardy.