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Author: Tiffany Visser

My drug free natural twin birth

After a mere 16 minutes of pushing I had just given birth to TWO children and I had done it drug free. Here is my twin birth story.

36 weeks pregnant with MCDA twins

On the evening of April 27^th 2016 I was getting ready for bed when I turned to my husband Nathan in tears and said I couldn’t do this anymore. At officially 36 weeks pregnant with MCDA twins I had reach the point of exhaustion both mentally and physically.

Mentally because I had spent my entire pregnancy with what I can now identify as perinatal depression and anxiety.  I was convinced from the moment I was told that I was having twins that something was going to go wrong and I spent my entire pregnancy googling everything that could possibly happen. I was driven to believe that I didn’t deserve to have two healthy children when there were so many women around me that would give anything to experience pregnancy.

Ironically, I actually had a text book perfect pregnancy – morning sickness in the first trimester is the biggest complaint I have.

Peripartum Cardiomyopathy and Twin Pregnancy

Author: Emily Giannone

As far as my twin pregnancy was concerned, up until the boys’ birth, it was relatively uneventful (aside from the draining, constant nausea, and vomiting – yay genetics…thanks Mum).

During the third trimester, I began to experience significant shortness of breath, heart palpitations and panic attacks (not uncommon for any pregnancy). In the last week of pregnancy my feet and legs began to retain fluid. All these symptoms seemed harmless and ‘normal’ for a pregnant woman. 

Twins born at 37 weeks. Welcome to the world!

The 27th of June 2019 (37+1 weeks pregnant), was the day we were booked in to meet our DCDA Fraternal twin boys. With all my anxiety, the best course of action was to be an elective c-section, so that as much as possible, I would be able to ‘cope’ and ensure that both boys were safe. In hindsight, electing to have that birth procedure quite possibly saved my life.

Author: Katie Bowman

When I found out I was pregnant with DCDA twins, I felt personally attacked by my uterus and the idea of birthing twins sent me into a spiral of anxiety and panic.

The words premature birth and c-section flashed into my mind because they were the only things I ever heard about when it came to birthing multiples, but they were also the 2 things I was hoping to avoid.

Pregnancy was incredibly uncomfortable but otherwise healthy – except for one hospital admission at 22 weeks for possible premature labour. Other than that, my body was a solid baby jail and held those babies safely until I was induced at 38+2.

Enormous, miserable, barely able to move but incredibly proud of my body, I walked into the hospital at 7am ready to evict our new family members. Twin A was a team player and had been head down since about 20 weeks, so we were ready to get the party started.

Author: Jemma Cullen

Giving birth to twins while in isolation

In July 2019 I was eagerly awaiting the arrival of our second and third children, MCDA twins (their gender a surprise even to us!). I spent my days resting where possible and enjoying time with our daughter, Hazel (3 years old). A caesarean had been scheduled for Wednesday, 24 July 2019 (35+5).

The day prior to scheduled delivery I became extremely unwell, had difficulty breathing and was admitted to hospital. In the early evening, a swab test returned a positive result. It was confirmed I had Influenza A despite having had the flu vaccine.

Doctors were extremely worried about me and determined that delivery would go ahead as planned the next day, however, I would be giving birth to twins while in isolation. The twins would be taken to NICU/SCN upon their arrival. I would not be able to visit or care for the twins until I was well.

Thankfully my fiancé, Brett, was well and he was able to remain with and care for the twins. Hazel was to stay with my parents as originally planned.