Arti and Ganesh met on a dating website in India and married before heading to Australia, only to find out once they arrived they were pregnant with twin boys. Arti is hoping for a natural delivery but understands it might not be possible as twins are considered a high risk pregnancy. The midwife struggles to find the twins heartbeat for monitoring but she finally finds them both beating away. Dr Pesce arrives to help deliver the twins just in case there are any complications. Arti is absolutely amazing and the twins arrive naturally without a hitch! One needs a little help breathing as he’s a bit stunned but both Swarit and Taksh are totally healthy baby boys.
Are your boys fraternal or identical?
Swarit and Taksh are fraternal boy twins. They are both totally different from each other in every way. Not only do they look totally different, but they behave totally differently. One is always smiling and wants to interact with toys, the other is happy to just lay there and observe.
My aunt had twins a long time ago, but no one else in our family has twins. It is very special.
How old are they? And how are you coping with it all?
The boys are 4 months old now. It’s getting a bit easier. I wont lie, the early days were very very tough. I just kept repeating what my friend told me. That “It is just one day you need to get through, it is a new day tomorrow”.
How are they sleeping and feeding?
I am lucky that they alternate their wake up times, as I am finding tandem feeding hard.
One of them had bad colic, so we gave him formula at night for few weeks. As his colic has slowly started to settle down, we have weaned them off the formula and are back to just breastfeeding.
How far along where you when you discovered you were having twins?
We managed to get Visas to move to Sydney. We arrived in Sydney on the 29th December, in time to see the fireworks. We were going to have a bit of a holiday and look around before we went back to India for a few months to pack up and move to Australia properly.
I had done two home pregnancy tests at home, as my period was a bit late, but they were both negative. However, I wasn’t feeling well once we arrived in Australia. On our second day I got another home pregnancy test. And it was positive! I did the test early in the morning, and I walked back into the hotel bedroom with a big smile on my face. My husband asked me what was I smiling about. I showed him the test, he was a bit stunned!
We decided to go to the doctor, and he said that we should have a dating scan done here before we went back to India so we knew exactly what was going on. And it turned out I was 8 weeks pregnant with twins!!!
What was your reaction when you found out it was twins?
We were at the sonographer for the dating scan, and the sonographer said “I think we have a surprise here. There are two”. We just looked at each other in shock. We stared blankly at each other. It wasn’t until we left the ultrasound place that we started smiling. We were so excited!!! It was so special.
However, all of a sudden we had to make a lot of big plans. The doctor told us that because it was twins, it was a high risk pregnancy and that he didn’t recommend me going back to India for the few months to pack up our life there. So we had to decide if we were staying in Australia or returning to India.
We decided to stay! We literally only had our suitcase of clothes with us.
The hardest part was we had tell all our family that not only that we were pregnant, but we were pregnant with twins AND that we were staying in Australia and not coming back to pack up our life there.
How did you and your husband prepare for the twins? You didn’t even have anywhere to live at the time! Or any of your personal belongings!
We did lots of shopping!!! We started with the home side of things, and did lots of trips to Ikea and everywhere. It was so much fun! Then once we were organised we started getting the baby stuff.
It was scary, but we knew we had some of my cousins here and a couple of friends, as backup incase it didn’t all work out. But thankfully it did.
What made you agree to be on One Born Every Minute?
I was at the hospital by myself. A Midwife was handing out flyers and there was a producer in the waiting room we could talk to. I decided to go and talk to her. She was so lovely. She walked me though what it was all about, as I had not heard of the show in India. I really liked her, but said I needed to speak with my husband.
My husband not so sure about the whole idea. He was worried about what our families would think, and he said we really needed to consider all things that could happen. We met with the producers to talk about our reservations, and again the producers were lovely. They said they would make sure it was all discreet, and that they would show us the final version and get our consent before it was aired.
We made the decision to go ahead with it, as we were comfortable we could always pull out if we weren’t happy with the final show.
How did you feel watching back your birth episode?
It was beautiful! And the producers were correct, everything was nice and discreet, while still showing everything. We were really happy. It brought tears to our eyes to watch it.
Are you excited to see it on TV tonight?
Yes. Both our mothers are here at the moment,
so we are going to all watch it together tonight. And all our friends and
family know it is going to be aired tonight.
I am going to put the babies to bed early tonight. I’ve wanted to watch the show each Tuesday
night, but the babies had always been awake and crying. So I will put them to bed early tonight so I
can see it.
What gestation were your twins born at?
38 weeks. I am so pleased I made it to full term as it meant they didn’t need any special care time. It was so hard to sleep at the end though, and I was so uncomfortable. Other than being uncomfortable I was fine. I was actually doing the Baby Momma Dance the day before my induction, trying to get them to come out!
I was induced at 38 weeks though. On the morning of the induction they had no problem with Baby A. They attached him to the foetal monitor. However, they couldn’t get a trace of Baby B’s heartbeat. I knew he was OK though, as I could feel him moving. But they had to get the head midwife and then the doctor to get the trace on him. He was dancing about in there!
Something funny happened at 37 weeks. I went for a scan, and the sonographer said that he thought there had been a mistake and I was actually having triplets!!! I was a bit shocked. I called my husband, who was at work. He was really shocked. He turned to his colleagues immediately and told them, and they were joking that he was going to need to be admitted to the hospital for the delivery if it was triplets!! I was pretty sure it was only twins, but they had to call me back in for another scan the next day to be sure. And it was only twins!
What was the thing about the birthing process that surprised you on the day?
The whole experience was beautiful. The midwives were amazing, so calm and beautiful. My midwives were so lovely. Kate, Rita and Amanda made the whole process just perfect. I really didn’t expect it to be so beautiful.
How was your stay in the hospital?
I had a bad time after the actual birth. I had a lot of trouble feeding. My nipples were sore and I was crying a lot. I didn’t think I could do it, but the Midwives were so helpful with expressing and feeding. At one stage I begged for formula and I was crying and they wouldn’t give it to me. At the time I was not happy, but now I am glad, as I pushed though, and now at 4 months they are breast feeding well. I am grateful for the Midwives help and support.
Is the Australian birthing process different from birthing in India?
Yes! So different. In India the fathers are not allowed in the room, regardless of if it is a vaginal birth or a c-section. I had always hoped that he would be there to hold my hand, and it turned out he was!!! If we were in India, it wouldn’t have happened that way.
And the Doctors here are so nice. They can be grim and tense in India, but here the Doctors were so happy and encouraging. They made me laugh, and forget about what was happening. It was so lovely.
I am so thankful for my experience.
Do you have family support here in Australia?
Mu mother came here before the boys delivery. My mother told my husband that it was going to be difficult once the babies were born, so we got a visa for his Mum to come over and she came over when they were born to help. So I have had both our Mums here to help.
We are all going back to India when the boys are 6 months old, after they have had their 6 month vaccinations. We will have a grand welcome for the babies back in India.
We will then come home on our won with the boys and our Mums will stay back in India. I’m a bit nervous as to how we will cope. But I’m sure we will be OK.
Have you found much support for your twin pregnancy and beyond eg. online support groups or your local multiple birth association?
I have joined an online Indian Mothers Group, they have been very helpful.
Both of my close friends here have small babies, one was born in February and the other had her baby two weeks before the twins were born. So we have been supporting each other.
Are you getting out and about much?
We have just started going out. We went out to the shopping centre the other day, and have been on the bus. We are going to take them on a train next week. It was a bit stressful when they both started to cry at the same time while we were out, but we managed.
Do you think people will recognise you when you go out now? Twins are such a fascination to the general population anyway! I wonder if people will recognise you?
Do you really think so? Oh my gosh????
Watch One Born Every Minute Australia.
One Born Every Minute Australia, airs on Channel 10 on Tuesday night at 8.30. If you miss it, you will be able to watch it on 10 Play.
You can read another Twin birth Story from One Born Every Minute Australia HERE.
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