The Lone Twin: Understanding Twin Bereavement and Loss

'There is no doubt a greater awareness now of the significance of twin loss than there was ten years ago.I think that this is largely due to a big increase in articles, radio and television programmes as well as the spread of the Network.The well-known researcher Nancy Segal in the USA has, through her many books, added knowledge to our understanding of twin relationships as well as twin loss.She believes the loss to be highly significant and queries whether for some lone twins it is greater even than that of the loss of a spouse (Segal 2000).Others have written autobiographical material about their loss (Jones 1987; Farmer 1988).In spite of this, there is still ignorance. At a recent book launch for the publication of a book about the loss of a twin through drug taking (Burton-Phillips 2007) someone in the field of education said to a few of us from the Network, that she did not see how a twin who lost their twin at birth could possibly be affected.She asked, 'How would the surviving