A town in Oyo state, Nigeria, Igbo Ora has been said to be the town with the highest number of twins in the world.
Twins are often identified as the birth of two offspring from the same pregnancy and usually rarely occur which makes them to be regarded as special.
Birth rate of twins usually varies by region and country with Latin America and South East Asia recording the lowest rate of 9 sets of twins per every 1,000 births.
Europe and United States records only 16 and 33 twins respectively for every 1,000 births.
In Central Africa, the record is set to be around 18 to 30 sets of twins for every 1,000 births.
However, Igbo-Ora, a town in Oyo state, Southwestern Nigeria, situated 80 kilometres north of Lagos, has been said to record the highest number of multiple births in the world.
Igbo-Ora which is a town in the Yoruba land, welcomes visitors with a very large Plinth, which proudly celebrates the land as the ‘Home of Twins’.
While there is no solid reason for the high occurence of twin birth in the area, fertility experts have given their opinion for the multiple births in the area as it could be a high consumption of a specific type of yam containing a natural phytoestrogen which is said to to stimulate a woman’s ovaries to release eggs from each side.
Also, the residents of Igbo-Ora points the secret of their multiple births to a diet rich in the leaf of an Okra plant and yam.
