Double The Tears- “Siamese” Twins

“I’ve had twice the adventure
I’ve cried double the tears.
I’ve had two times the bad times,
In only half the years…”
— “Twice the Love,” the “Siamese Twins Song” from Big Fish

Conjoined twins occur in roughly 1 in every 200 identical twin pregnancies and are always identical. Actual numbers for conjoined births vary from 1 in 20,000 to 1 in 100,000 pregnancies, and 40-60% are stillborn, with many others dying within the first few days after birth. About 70% of conjoined twins are female, the reason for which is unknown. Separation has been attempted on almost all conjoined twins born since the 1950s with varying results, although the first successful separation was performed in Basel, Switzerland in 1689 on twin girls born joined by a ligament at the sternum . The first conjoined twins to be successfully separated in “modern” times are generally believed to be Catherine and Caroline Mouton of Louisiana, born joined at the lower back and separated in 1953 at 8 days of age. Both survived the operation, but Catherine committed suicide in 1985. The most famous pair of conjoined twins was Chang and Eng Bunker, Thai brothers born in Siam, now Thailand. They traveled with P.T. Barnum’s circus for many years and were billed as the Siamese Twins.