Category: Birth

Are you possibly facing a stay in the NICU or SCN with your twins or triplets? 

Twins and triplets have an increased chance of needing a stay in acute care. This can be due to early delivery, no birth weight or complications during delivery. The time that you will spend in special care depends on the needs of your little ones. It can be a difficult time for everyone involved, but your babies are in the best place they can be. If you are looking at an extended stay in the NICU or SCN you might want to be prepared. 

Check out our list of things to take to the NICU or SCN for twins or triplets. 

Over half of multiple birth deliveries result in needing a c-section for twins and almost all triplet births. This can be for a number of different reasons including sizing, early delivery, personal choice and emergency c-sections when there are issues that arise.

 Having a c-section can be daunting for mums to be and the thought of it can be worrisome. However, delivering your babies and looking out for both the health of mum and bubs is paramount. It may be the safest way to deliver your babies. When it comes to having a c-section for twins or triplets, you will receive a lot of advice and recommendations from the doctors. They will talk you through the procedure, the preparation, and the healing time. But what about the things you didn’t expect during your c-section? The things no one mentioned? We asked our community at Parents of Multiples Australia what they didn’t expect during their c-section and how they felt. These are their personal responses.

Having a baby is an exciting time. Having two or more babies at the same time is truly spectacular!

Your life has now changed. There are different things that are now a priority. A new routine that you need to work out. And then work out again because it didn’t work the first time. There are things to learn, milestones to reach and lots of love to give. But there are also a few official things that you need to do after the birth of your babies. And I am not taking about the official Facebook post announcing their birth. While this official Facebook status seems to be OK for relationships, the various government departments won’t accept that! When you have a baby – or two or three- your word for it isn’t quite enough!

There is only one negative about having twins or triplets as far as I am concerned. And you are about to learn this rapidly when undertaking the the official things to do after having twins or higher order multiples. It is the duplicate paper work!! Filling out the same form time after time again, then (in your sleep deprived state!) having to go back and double check you have one filled out with each name etc.

To help you, here is a list of the official things to do after having twins or higher order multiples

Author: Kara Lambert

When I found out I was pregnant with twins at my dating scan, I was both excited and terrified. My previous two babies were born early (at 34-35 weeks) following premature rupture of membranes and both required some weeks in NICU/special care, so I knew there would be even a higher risk of preterm birth with twins. My second baby in particular was a fast labour, and both times my waters broke spontaneously out of the blue, so I’d pretty much been waiting for this to happen with the twins at any time. I spent a lot of my twin pregnancy anxious, googling outcomes of babies born very preterm!

My preference was for a vaginal birth with twins

My first two babies were both born vaginally, and my private OB and I had previously had discussions about trying for a vaginal birth with the twins (which I wanted), but I was advised I would need an epidural in case twin 2 needed help birthing or moved around in my uterus after twin 1 was born. I was ok with that, given I wanted to avoid a c-section if possible. Luckily both twins were head down from about 28 weeks which made attempting a vaginal birth with twins possible.