Sometimes, marriages can get messy. As the husband, you might discover that your wife had an affair right around the time she became pregnant. This knowledge could change everything for a father, especially if you begin to wonder whether you are the biological father. These days, DNA testing can resolve that question in the most efficient way possible.
But what if there were two babies? What could happen if your wife gave birth to fraternal twins? You could tell the two don’t look alike, but that’s not unusual, so you may not have thought any testing would come back indicating that you are the biological father of only one of your children. Is that even possible?
It’s rare, but it happens
Just about anything is possible. Fraternal twins often aren’t identical and don’t even have to be the same sex. However, they will more than likely resemble each other as brothers and sisters do. Why would you think otherwise? The process by which a woman can have the children of two men at one time is rare, but it does happen. Your wife would have to have ovulated twice within the same cycle and then had sexual intercourse with you and the other man within a relatively short period of time.
The only other time this has happened without a woman sleeping with two men is during invitro fertilization. Mistakes can happen in the lab leading to this same phenomenon. So unless you and your wife went through IVF, the former explanation is more than likely how you ended up being the biological father of one of your fraternal twins.
Even rarer is when a woman ovulates after becoming pregnant and has sexual intercourse with a different man. This could result in a pregnancy as well. Under these circumstances, the babies develop at different rates, but go through labor and delivery together.
What happens next?
Just because you find out you are not related to one of your fraternal twins does not necessarily mean that you will not continue to love that child, especially if years have gone by since the birth. Your name is probably on the birth certificate, and if you divorce, you could still have a place in his or her life. On the other hand, you may decide you don’t want to be legally responsible for the child.
Because this situation is rare, finding out exactly what your rights and responsibilities are under Georgia law could be considered even more crucial than it is under ordinary circumstances.