Double is Trouble? Twins Plus Festival Gathers Multiples around Australia.

By Mao Xinyu

It was quite a sight with hundreds of twins, triplets and even quadruplets gathering for a national festival in Melbourne.

HELLO! WE ARE TWINS! PHOTO BY MAO XINYU

The 2012 Twins Plus Festival jointly organized by Australian Multiple Birth Association and Australian Twin Registry was held at Caufield Racecourse early today, gathering a throng of multiple births around Australia.

The festival planning committee prepared a series of distinctive activities, including a meeting with interesting twins/triplets and a Multiple Got Talent Show, where twins, triplets and even quadruplets had a great opportunity to mingle with other multiples and their families

“We enjoyed it very much, it is amazing to see there are so many multiples coming together,” said Raie and Judy Moss, members of the Australian Twins Registry.

“There are approximately 400,000 twins in Australia which takes up 2 per cent of the total population,” said Lynette Walker from the Festival Planning Committee.

“We hold this event every three years, and it aims at letting families with multiples know that there is a lot of support around them and they’re not alone.”

Walker said that statistically two thirds of twins are dizygotic (fraternal) and the rest are monozygotic (identical), and the difference depends on whether the separate eggs are fertilized by the same sperm. Fraternal twins thus can be either the same sex or different sexes.

When asked about whether there is tacit understanding between identical twins, Peter Stefaniw, who is Senior Constable from Glen Eira police unit, said “I think so. My elder brother Paul is five minutes older than me and it never is coincident that we both became policemen.”

“Me and my husband will not buy the same clothes for the girls,” said Ms Skevington, mother of twin sisters Miranda and Annabelle.

“We both agree to respect their personal interests of each other.”

“Within the past decade, the number of multiple births increased by 27 per cent,” said Anne Marie Harli, the Festival Chairperson.

“Life in families with twins can sometimes be difficult because they burden with extra pressures such as financial problem, relationship with other people and their educational outcomes.”

Emma and Sarah Nicholas are local high school students. As twin sisters, they were often misrecognized by each other’s friends.

“Once when I walked on the street and saw somebody waving at me and I had to wave them back while wondering if I knew them until they call me ‘Sarah’,” said Emma, elder in the twins.

The below URL will direct to a slideshow from the event:

Click me: http://www.flickr.com/photos/maonaldo/sets/72157629261365502/show/

For more information, please click the event official website:

http://www.twinsfestival.com.au/