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.
Being induced with twins at 38 weeks
I met almost every staff member in case things went south and we needed help, but someone must have been looking down on me because I was lucky enough to end up having an almost textbook birth! Funnily enough, even with a pretty textbook birth there is still a small party of people in the room!
They got the drip going and my contractions slowly started. As they started ramping up and getting more painful, I asked for an epidural. I’d had one with my eldest and felt no desire to experience the ‘ring of fire’ this time around either. Telling me I’d need to wait just a little longer for labour to become more established left me feeling a little salty, but I powered on because hey, what other choice did I have?
Epidural with twins
An angel in the form of the anaesthesiologist walked through the door and I could feel a glorious sense of excitement. A little ‘beep beep’ went off and she apologised that she needed to attend to an emergency. It felt like I’d fallen from heaven to hell in a matter of 0.3 seconds, but she returned a moment later to say someone else was taking care of it. Hallelujah. Someone really was looking down on me. I like to think it was my nan who was a fraternal twin, and probably the hereditary reason I was blessed with twins.
Twins born vaginally at 38 weeks
With an epidural working its magic, I managed to nap on and off all day until it was time to push. Just a few pushes later at 7.47pm, I had a 2.9kg baby in my arms. Cuddling her in amazement, I barely noticed the farmyard handling as twin B was spun around and guided down the exit row. I attempted to hold twin A as I tried to push twin B out, but I was worried about dropping her and couldn’t give my pushes all the energy and concentration needed. Twin A was handed over to my husband who ripped his shirt off with excitement at being given the opportunity to do skin to skin contact. I’ll never forget the mixed look of emotions on his face. Disgust at the blood and muck smeared over him, and adoration as he stared at his new daughter.
I concentrated on my pushing, and at 8.10pm our second beautiful 2.5kg baby was in my arms. With twin A handed back to me, I had twin newborns in my arms and it almost felt too good to be true.
My perfect twin birth
Was I imagining this? Twins born vaginally at 38 weeks??? I couldn’t believe I had gone full term with twins, vaginally birthed them both with no tears or cuts, and had 2 perfectly healthy babies having their first breastfeed with no special care needed. I felt like the luckiest person in the world!
Being my second pregnancy I felt ready and confident to head home on day 2 with our precious babies – where we haven’t slept properly since!
As tired but loving mum, I hope my story empowers you and brings you encouragement to know that birthing multiples doesn’t always come with a scary story. Ask me to write about twins and sleeping however, and I’d probably write a story rivalling The Shining!
You can read Katies story about being a defence force wife and raising twins HERE.
You can follow more of Katies family adventures on her Facebook page HERE.
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