Hi Guys,

Wow! Remember the lovely positive thinking lady I met the other day? She was 38 weeks pregnant with DCDA twins and had a toddler at home? She had come in for an induction and I met her again today on the post-natal ward.

I chose the bay she was in purely because I had met her before.

I had met her the morning of the 8th and she was in to start the induction procedure. Her waters were artificially broken and she had a syntocinon infusion to help her get into labour. She had the epidural wich we discussed as she wasnt sure what to about that. She was transferred into our theatres when she felt like pushing and about 2200 ish that evening she delivered a healthy baby girl followed by a healthy baby boy 17 minutes later. They both spookily weighed the same! Approx 3 kg and despite a small 2 degree tear she lost a very small amount of blood. She breastfed the babies and did not need to give them any formula milk.

This is a triumph for her (and for us)- a twin delivery with no complications - healthy babies and breastfeeding. She said she felt better today than she did after the delivery of the previous daughter she had a few years ago. A girl/boy combination - she was very happy with that indeed. The myth about boys and girls heart-rates turned out to be true for her. Twin 1 - the girl had a higher rate than the boy Twin 2. I dont really go in for all that - so make of that what you will! 

I chatted to her about getting advice and support from local twinsclub groups or internet ones. She said she wished she'd had advice about buying the pushchair since she had 2 babies plus a toddler.

We talked about breast-feeding as her long term plan is to do mix feeding and I told her about a certain triplet Mum who sucessfully breast-fed and topped up for the first year with her triplets!! She knew that the breast-feeding was better for baby and for Mum. She understood how you could express off breast-milk, store it and serve up later but wanted to use artificial milk to mix feed. She understood about supply/demand and how quickly you could end up totally replacing the breast-feeding with artificial feeding so she had already contacted the local breast-feeding group so that she could get advice and support.

We talked about SIDS reduction advice (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). Much of this is specific to single babies and dosnt look at multiples. Often what we do in the hospital influences Mums with sleeping positions and same room/separate room when they get home. Some hospitals have a policy NOT to put the same twin in the same cot and therefore influences the Mum in what she does when she gets home. It was an interesting conversation and I just wish there was more research out there that was more specific to healthy term multiple babies.

So I truly believe her positive approach really helped her!

Remember snoring twin-mum to be who has pre-eclampsia- more complaints and has been moved again!!!  No amount of moving her around is going to stop her snoring! lol! It really is excessive and we are very used to snorers but this is LOUD.

I can see it now..................................

IOL (induction of labour)

DCDA twins - both cephalic

37 weeks

reason - PET and snoring.

We also had another twin-mum in today for an elective section as the first twinwas a footling breech. This was very similar to my twin pregnancy! I never got the chance to talk to her so no doubt will get to meet her if Im on the postnatal ward over the next few days!

I had a really lovely shift today but worked all the way through with no break and so went home early instead. There were 5 other ladies all with interesting things to note about them and I can honestly say I enjoyed it. Lots of BCG jabs needed today which takes up time - another task given to midwives to do- as if we dont have enough to do already!.

Home today- kids are being well behaved and I made origami airplanes with Alex and we flew them in the garden together. Hubbie - is watching the Grand National in the conservatory. The origami book for paper planes is very good- a gift from Aunty Claire.

This is it and I would recommend it as it comes with lovely coloured paper and has different degrees of difficulty. Lovely instructions on how to do them too.

Bye for now- thinking of adding more midwifery bits and pieces - just got new info from the RCM and its full of interesting things this time! Let me know what you think!