Premature Twins

Some of you will have your twins before 37 weeks gestation. These babies are termed Premature or Pre-term. A lot depends on how early they arrive, some will need special care and being looked after in a SCBU or Neonatal unit. Others that are only a little early may need a day or two of monitoring and then will be released home as usual.

Premature twins Incubator

Babies can be born alive after around 26 weeks gestation. If they are born before 32 weeks they will more than likely have to be fed via a feeding tube until they are old enough to take milk direct from you or a bottle.

Why are babies (especially twins) born so early?
Some babies are born due to premature rupturing of the membranes, some mothers have a weak cervix, other mums have pre-eclampsia or other pregnancy related health issue which will only be resolved by an early elective caesarean. Sometimes there is a slowing of growth, a massive increase in the amount of amniotic fluid present; sometimes babies stand a greater chance of survival being born a few weeks or even months early than being left in the womb.

My babies are so small and fragile it is hard to cope with seeing them so small.
It can be very frightening and nerve wracking seeing your little baby twins weighing the same as a bag of sugar (or in some cases even less than this) especially if they have lots of wires etc attached to them. They may look little and fragile and this may be upsetting for you.

You may feel shocked that your baby twins are out in the world when they should still be tucked up inside you and you may worry if they are going to be ok.

You may feel angry that this is happening to your babies, and also to you. You may want to scream or cry, these are all perfectly natural emotions, and if you possibly can you would be as well to feel them all as they are happening, trying not to bottle things up.

Your partner will also be feeling a range of different emotions as will your family, your friends may not know how to help you with this, maybe not know what to say or do, and this again can make you feel a range of emotions.

How will my premature babies be fed?
This depends on their stage of development at birth, at first some premature babies will be fed via a feeding tube; others (especially those born after 32 weeks gestation) may be able to take either expressed breast milk or formula via a bottle or breast feed.

Any Questions?
If you have any questions about feeding your twins don’t hesitate to ask your health team for advice as every baby is different and much depends on the individual baby concerned. You may even find that each baby gets fed slightly differently

Write a Journal or Weblog (blog)
The best way of dealing with this is to keep a journal of your day to day thoughts whilst they are in special care, as writing them down helps you come to terms with how you are feeling.

If you can share your feelings with your partner then that would be fantastic, if you cant then either find a friend who will be willing to listen to how you feel or drop Twinsonline an email, sometimes it helps talking to someone who is out of the immediate situation.

Get your friends and family to help
Your friends would benefit from been kept up to date with what’s happening and you could also enlist their help by arranging for your day to day stuff being dealt with, perhaps get a neighbour to open and close the curtains if you are tied up with the hospital and switch table lamps on and off for you, feed and walk pets, buy you simple groceries so when you come home for a shower and change of clothes you will have milk and something to make yourself to eat.

They could also keep other family and friends informed by sending email or texts to save you having to say the same thing over and over to other friends and relatives. They could also form a rota to look after your other children this will take a weight off your mind if you know that your older children are being well looked after.

Look after yourself too
If you have had a caesarean you may not be able to spend too much time with your babies for the first few days, you will be able to visit them but you will have to concentrate most of your strength on getting yourself better.

Express milk?
You may be encouraged to express your breast milk so that you can feed them your own milk, If that is what you would like to do then tell your midwife and she will arrange for you to have a breast pump. You can buy breast pumps that will take milk from both breasts simultaneously whilst you get on with something else.

What if I don’t want to express milk? Will formula do?
If you cannot express milk for whatever reason, then don’t worry about it, your babies will be fine given premature baby formula. There is no point getting stressed about your choice of feeding method.

There are lots of pieces of equipment in the Special Care Baby Unit and I don’t know what they are for.. help!
Don’t worry, your health team will be more than happy to tell you exactly what each machine is for so please do ask them.

Your health team are also very good at listening to you talk about how you’re feeling so ensure that you let them know what you are feeling and what you would like to know. The more you can find out about the care of your twins the better.

My twins are going to be in hospital for a while, help!
You will probably get into a routine of sitting with your babies, and talking to them and can bond with them, ask the hospital staff if you can give them a cuddle or hold their hands etc.

Whilst you might not feel like eating especially at first, you must keep your energy levels up, even if it is only eating light snacks and fruit at first, you need to keep yourselves healthy and drink plenty of water or juice to keep your body hydrated.

Take regular breaks from the hospital, you could always get your partner to have a turn sitting with your babies if you would like, take a shower and get changed, you will feel a little better if you can keep yourself fresh.

Whilst you might feel guilty doing this you will probably feel better in the long term doing this.

Spend Time with your other children
You will need to spend some time with your older children if you have them. Take time to talk through with them why you have to spend so much time at the hospital and also tell them that you love them to bits, take time to just do ordinary things with them. Avoid buying big presents for them as they would prefer love and quality time than big generous gestures.

Where can I find other people who have been in this situation themselves?
First of all there is the Twinsonline forum which has an entire forum dedicated to parents of premature twins. There is also a good message board on the Bliss website go to www.bliss.org.uk

There is a lot of technical terms which I don’t really understand, please can you help?
www.bliss.org.uk has a great information section so don’t forget to check that out too.

Disclaimer:- Twinsonline is here as a guide only - anything you do you do at your own risk
If you have a health concern please go see the relevant member of your health team (GP, Health Visitor, Midwife, Obstetrician)