Multiple births are multiplying in U.S.

Americans are giving birth to an increasing number of triplets and quadruplets nationwide and locally, according to a government report that attributes the increase to fertility drugs and delayed childbearing.

Multiple births, including quintuplets, rose by 19 percent over 1995 to 1996 for an all-time high of approximately 6,000 multiple births, according to the National Center for Health Statistics in Maryland.Fertility specialists and obstetricians in Los Angeles said their birthrates for multiples mirror the nationwide trend.

"It's absolutely true everywhere, especially here in Tarzana," said Dr. Michael Vermesh, a reproductive endocrinologist at the Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center's fertility program.

"We're getting to be more successful with procedures like in vitro fertilization," said Vermesh. "And because we're more successful, we're getting more pregnancies and relative to other populations we're getting more multiple births."

As in the national study, the boom is due to fertility drugs and women who wait into their 30s to become mothers, said Vermesh.

"It is known that women who are older when they finally conceive, the likelihood of carrying twins is higher, but I don't think it applies to triplets or quadruplets," said Vermesh. "I think it's mostly the high-tech procedures that we're using today."

At Glendale Adventist Medical Center, the number of multiple births nearly doubled, from 16 in 1996 to 30 in 1997, according to hospital officials.

The increase came after two years of stability: 17 multiple births in 1994 and 15 in 1995, hospital officials said.

The boom at the hospital is due to referrals to its neonatal intensive care unit and successful in vitro fertilization and donor egg programs, said Charles March, a USC professor and obstetrician/

gynecologist at Glendale Adventist.

The nationwide increase in multiple-birth rates comes at a time when the general birthrate is declining, according to the "Report of Final Natality Statistics, 1996." Births in the United States declined slightly to 3.8 million in 1996.

In California, the latest figures show that in 1996 there were 12,581 twin births, 475 triplets and 41 other multiple births from a total of 538,628 births.

The surge in multiple births was no surprise to mothers, who said they've noticed the trend over the past year.

When Tracy Darnell-Lujan joined the Antelope Valley Mothers of Twins and Triplets Club two years ago, there were only eight members. Today there are 90 mothers on the mailing list and 24 paid members.

"When I was pregnant and I started looking for support groups I couldn't find anything out there," said Darnell-Lujan, a Lancaster mother of 2-year-old triplets.

The support group is made up mainly of mothers with twins, but there is also one set of quadruplets, an expectant mother of quadruplets and four sets of triplets, according to Darnell-Lujan, the group's president.