Multiple births and visible birth defects in 13,000 consecutive deliveries in one Ghanaian hospital.

The analysis of the data from this study, though not complete, has shown the following: 1) High rates of plural births may be expected in Ghanaian populations (3.21% for twins, 0.05% for triplets). 2) Hellin's law relating to the incidence of multiple births has been found to apply to a Ghanaian population. 3) Our data show that maternal age and parity have considerable effect on twinning. 4) Multiple pregnancies may not, in themselves, constitute a risk to the mother. On the other hand, the birthweight of the babies may be the cause of hazard at childbirth.