Fertility treatments raise your odds of getting pregnant with more than one baby. When you carry twins, triplets, or more, pregnancy becomes more of a challenge. It’s also less likely that all your babies will be born healthy. A surgery called multifetal reduction lowers the number of fetuses and improves your chances for a healthy pregnancy. Also called fetal reduction or selective pregnancy reduction, it’s a safe procedure, and chances of problems are small. Still, it can be a tough decision.

How It’s Done Usually, the procedure happens during the first trimester (12 weeks) of your pregnancy. That’s when the fetuses are still in separate fluid-filled pouches. Your doctor can look at the fetuses with an ultrasound probe. Using these pictures as a guide, your doctor will put a small needle in your belly or vagina, then gently inject a special drug into a pouch. This medicine quickly stops the fetus’s heart. Often, the doctor will reduce two fetuses. Sometimes, your doctor will use a technique called radiofrequency ablation instead. A small needle device uses electric currents to cut off the blood flow from your umbilical cord to one or more fetuses. Although fetal pregnancy reduction takes only a few minutes, you may get general anesthesia so you’ll sleep through it and feel no pain. Afterward, your doctor will do another ultrasound to check on the rest of your babies. You may need to stay in the hospital overnight.