Category: Birth

Author:  Lauren Sinclair

MCDA Twins born at 29 weeks

On October 30th 2019, after a horribly painful last week of pregnancy, our MCDA twins Poppy and Layla were born after sudden onset Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome at 29 weeks. After being lucky enough to escape the early risk of TTTS in MCDA twins, within a two week period our girls went from being almost exact in size, to measuring a 30% discrepancy.

Twin to Twin Transfusion involves the shared placenta “rewiring” to send everything to one twin, and none to the other- resulting in extreme health risks for both babies. This was discovered in a routine ultrasound where I had been sure in my gut something was wrong, and they were delivered via emergency Caesarean section hours later. 

Poppy Gwen was born first weighing 1.4kgs.  She was rushed to NICU immediately because as the recipient twin, they were very concerned about the possibility of organ failure. Layla Louise arrived a minute later at 1kg, and I was allowed a very quick kiss before she too was rushed to NICU with her sister. 

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Author: Anonymous

I gave birth to twins during the enforced lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic. I also gave birth to my singleton in a pre-covid world.

The hardest part of birthing twins during COVID-19

In 2020, during the birth of my twins, I was unable to have any physical contact with my singleton for the duration of my hospital stay. That was the most difficult part of giving birth during COVID-19.

Needless to say, there were numerous video calls which helped my singleton connect with me and his newborn twin siblings. It was also easy for my singleton to reach me because I was able to make myself available as much as I could whilst in hospital.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Author: Emma Tyler

Our rainbow story I guess started like many others, it was eight years ago, with a desperate desire to add to our little family. This road was proven to not be an easy one after trying to fall pregnant naturally for so long and so challenged us both in all aspects; physically, financially, emotionally & mentally.

Finally falling pregnant………………. with twins

From the highest of highs with hope, unwavering determination and fleeting moments of excitement to the lowest of lows with absolute devastation and heartbreaking losses. We endured many medical procedures, including thirteen rounds of IVF and additional treatments. We experienced multiple miscarriages, a biochemical pregnancy and a still born and nearly gave up on our dream.

Then finally in our last desperate attempt we were blessed with our rainbow twin boys….our hearts were exploding with excitement and love when the sonographer said ‘can you see what I see’….and our cautious reply ‘uhhh no’ but thinking please no bad news, please no bad news and the sonographer then saying ‘there’s two sacs in there, you are having twins’. Our response; flowing tears of happiness.

Never did we suspect that we would end up with twins born on different days.

19 weeks pregnant with twins

My pregnancy up until the 20 week scan was relatively uneventful even though I was still following through with some medical treatments to decrease the chances of miscarriage and was extremely vigilant about everything especially my health and wellbeing. We didn’t want to take any chances.

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Author: Jenny Cutting

I’m writing this to make other mothers aware of multiple caesareans and Placenta Accreta. I never knew the dangers until it happened with my last child. Here is my story.  

My twin birth

2004 I was blessed to have given birth to two beautiful little twin boys via caesarean. This was my third caesarean but no complications other than my twins were 7 weeks premature but they were healthy. I wasn’t planning on having any more children. 

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