The birth of twins used to be a rare occurrence, but these days in Hollywood it would appear as though every starlet and her hubby/boyfriend/ live-in lover has had or is preggers with two babies instead of the traditional one. Celine Dion, Marcia Cross, Julia Roberts, Rebecca Romjin, Jennifer Lopez, Mariah Carey, Mary Stuart Masterson … the list goes on. Happy accidents? Well, according to splashy headlines and "in-depth" birth stories, the public is lead to believe that these twin births are divine will. And I'm here to tell you, that is likely not the case. In fact a lot more than divine intervention is what likely had these ladies knocked up with two rather than one babe.

Why do I care? Why do I question, or seem mean spirited about the miraculous births of these babies? Because as someone who struggled with secondary infertility and spent countless months, hours, minutes trying to conceive, I know that these twin births are not just miracles of g-d. They're more so the end result of endless doctor visits, risky and expensive procedures, a load of fertility drugs, artificial inseminations, painful egg retrievals and oh-so-pricey in vitro fertilization.

I know what you're gong to say -- there have been Hollywood actresses who've been vocal about their infertility struggles, but they're just a handful and definitely not in the majority. The process of trying to conceive – something that as a woman, you feel should be this natural process – when it just isn't happening, can feel akin to someone stripping you of your inalienable rights. And in our baby bump-obsessed culture, where we're constantly bombarded by these over 40-year-old actresses popping out twins one after the other … as a fertility-challenged woman it can make you go kind of batty.

For anyone who has never had fertility challenges: the cost of just one round of IVF can be as expensive as $10,000. Oftentimes it is not covered by insurance, and even more often it is unsuccessful. Usually it will take several rounds of IVF to actually get pregnant, and many times it is IVF, or other fertility drugs, causing these “spontaneous” twin pregnancies. In other words, these celebrity twins are usually not spontaneous miracles at all, but rather they're the end results of very costly, physically grueling painful procedures, which are often cost-prohibitive to the regular over 35-year-old woman who wants to bear a child.

I remember when I was experiencing secondary infertility after my first child. We tried for two years to get pregnant and after two intrauterine inseminations and endless rounds of shots, drugs and procedures (we were one step from IVF), I finally did get pregnant ... with twins. At 11 weeks, one of the twins, whose heartbeat was never quite as strong as the other's, passed away.

And it was a bittersweet blow -- I still had that one remaining baby in my womb, and was so lucky to have been able to carry that fetus to term. That baby is now my 6-year-old son.

Still, there are so many women for whom these procedures fail; they miscarry one or both fetuses, and the process of infertility and the struggle to conceive become an overwhelming mission and journey that is not as successful as Mariah Carey's, Jennifer Lopez', Marcia Cross’, Marcia Gay Harden's ... so why aren't these actresses talking about it? Why is there this veil of secrecy around this twin-explosion?

Because ultimately it's a matter of affordability -- and regular people simply cannot afford the procedures that these Hollywood celebs can?

Melissa Chapman blogs about her marriage and everything in between at www.marriedmysugardaddy.com. Her work has appeared in The Staten Island Advance, Care.com, ABC News, BlogHer, Baby Center, Momtourage, Lifetime Moms, Babble, The Washington Post, Time Out NY Kids and iVillage.

 Read all of her Betty columns here.