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Yams, a type of sweet potato, have also been linked with multiple births. A tribe in Africa whose diet consists mostly of yams was recently found to have exceptionally high rates of twins and multiple births. Yams are thought to contain chemicals that stimulate hyperovulation, increasing your chances of conceiving twins

mychubbyhubby - As annahoban7 said yeah this can increase the chances. Other things that can increase the chances of hyperovulation are increased dairy intake, folate and calcium tablets and a herbalist gave me this list of things to help as well.....red raspberry leaf and chaste tree berry are most used (by the lady) along with green tea, nettle leaf, ladies mantle and evening primrose....... Good Luck with it!!

Thank you both so much, I will try those ideas..I have a 6 year old and we want 2 more, I do have twins in my family(my mom and husband both are twins) and plus I'm 35. ;)

Hey Zerafa05, I started to look up the items you listed..I was wondering which ones are you taking, I'm not sure which if all the supplements I should take. thanx

mychubbyhubby - The best to take I believe is Red Raspberry Leaf Tea. There is a shop on Ebay that sell these herbs and you would drink them like tea (you boil the herbs for about 30 min to get the full benefit of them, so doinf them in a batch would be best. The only thing is if doing them in a batch you shouldn't keep the tea for longer than a 24 hour period). It is best to start Folate and Calic_m tablets before trying for the health of the child anyway so that would also help. Increase your dairy and yam/sweet potatoe intake as well and all these things should help! It helps that your mother is a twin, I don't believe it has anything to doi with your husbands family though. But all considered chances are good! Good Luck and baby dust to you! BTW someone I know went to a chinese herbalist and they gave her something to help her chances, she ended up falling pregnant with twins (boy/girl) so maybe that's worth a shot as well!

You can also go to www.tryingtoconceive.com that's where I bought my herbs from and just got a BFP, waiting for blood work to confirm.

I too went to tryingtoconceive.com and was purchased wild yam also called Prognaturally as well as most of the herbs the ladies have discribed.

I had a m/c, so we are ttc again for one more cycle and then that's it. I don't know if I can keep dealing with the loss.

Sorry to say this but the type of yams you suggested is not the ones we Yorubas eat. The type of yam that aids in multiple births is called agida. I got some (in flake form) sent to me before I started clomid. I ate about 3 spoons daily until I O'd. Of cos I don't know if it'll help but it wouldn't hurt to try. I'm just 2dpo so I'll keep you all updated soon.

At Zerafa05: the flake form is called garri. I had my mom send me some from home because I don't have any African store close by me, but you can get it from most African stores. Anyway, the jury is still out on if agida increases the rate of multiples. My chances of having a twin is slightly high though with or without agida. I'm Yoruba. My great grand mother and my grand mother had twins. My mother had a m/c of twin so I'm hoping I catch a twin from them lol. Baby dust to all.

Hi ladies sorry to burge in but I'm taken by the herbs and yams. I've been searching around for yams (In South Africa- EasternCape) but cant found them maybe the herbs but where can I get them? .

The only type of yams that produce twins is Agida Yams.. I would google it if I were you.. They have agida flakes and agida tea online somewhere. I wish I still had the website on hand but I dont. HTH

Hello girls, I visited a Chinese herbalist yesterday and spoke to him about increasing ovulation. He has put me on herbs to increase ovulation and I am to monitor and chart my BSL Temp to find out when I actually O. This is a healthy way of going about it! I actually know someone who was successful! So fingers crossed for me!

Hi there, well I read about this study in Africa where the diet is really high in yams and the incidence of twins is really high. I am an identical twin and my husband is a fraternal twin, we both desperately wanted twins, so we started eating yams periodically about 2 years ago. Then last summer we decided to start trying for a family in the October, so we started eating yams every day (including the skin, as the skin contains a chemical which makes the woman ovulate more than one egg a month). We are now 21 weeks pregnant with fraternal twins!!!!! I know that we are both twins, but my ob/gyn says it is very rare that we are having twins as there is no hereditary factor on my side. I am absolutely convinced that the yams had something to do with it! Good luck Teresa

teresa- congrats on your twins!!! That is crazy! Did you just eat regular yams? Do you know what you are having yet? Good luck and thanks for the info! melanie

I've heard of this before... In Africa there is a community of more than half twins and the main food of there diet is yams...