• Giving birth to two or more children is often referred to as having multiples. The most common multiples are twins but with the advances in science in the area of fertility, more and more multiples of three or more are being seen. As of 2010, the highest recorded amount of fertilized eggs in one human pregnancy is nine, or nonuplets.
  
  

Twins

• The term twins implies the birth of two babies or the pregnancy of two fertilized eggs present in one womb. Twins can either be identical or fraternal. Fraternal twins refers to twins who came from two separate fertilized eggs. Identical twins means the fertilized egg split into two parts and quite often the twins share the same placenta.
  
  

Triplets

• The term triplets refers to a multiple birth of three children. Triplets are rare but they do account for 1 in 8,000 births every year. Identical triplets refer to a fertilized egg that first splits into two, and then one of the eggs splits in half again. Fraternal triplets refers to three separate fertilized eggs. There are also some cases where there are only two eggs, and one of the fertilized eggs splits in two.
  
  

Quadruplets and More

• A set of four fertilized eggs is referred to as quadruplets. The terms continue for multiple births up to 15 which is referred to as quindecaplets. However, the highest amount of human fetuses ever recorded were nine or nonuplets. In June of 2002, Arab News reported that a Sudanese woman was pregnant with nine fetuses after fertility treatment. All nine fetuses were reported to be in good condition.
  
  

Terms for More Than Five Babies

• There are terms for a pregnancy up to 15 fetuses. Five babies are quintuplets; six, sextuplets; seven, septuplets; eight, octuplets; nine, nonuplets; 10, decuplets; 11, hendecuple or undecuple; 12, duodecuplets; 13, tredecuplets; 14, quattuordecuplets and 15 are quindecuplets.