Do triplets run in families?

[Winnie Pooh]

My girlfriend's sister gave birth to triplets some 3 years ago, without using any fertility treatments. They have a pretty cool (read:scary) history of multiplets in their family, the other sister had twins and their aunt had twins too. I suppose this means there are greater chances that we will have multiplets as well; I'm getting used to the thought of twins, but I'm pretty freaked out about triplets. So my question is, do triplets run in families too, or just twins? Do you know any (extended) families that have had more than one triplet birth? I've read that hyperovulation is responsible for fraternal multiplets, and that does indeed seem to run in my gf's family...

 

[Amalee]

Hello! Multiples are genetic, but only fraternal sets. Fraternal sets of twins/triplets/etc are caused by the body letting out more than one egg during a cycle, so if she has fraternal multiples in her family, she is more likely to have ovaries that do the same thing.

Identical twins are caused by one egg and one sperm. After fertilization, the cells split and separate for some reason and begin developing as two or more babies. This is NOT genetic, it's just chance.

 

[hardd2011]

Just so you know meaning genetics, it has to run in the women's side of the family which run in your genes. I wouldn't worry at all