Breastfeeding twins Mums of just one baby find it can sometimes take time to get Breastfeeding established, so if you’re pregnant+with+twins it’s understandable to wonder how you’ll manage to feed two. However, it can be done, and many mums manage to successfully breastfeed twins. Breastfeeding support Breast milk is the very best start for any baby and especially premature ones. The midwives and health professionals in hospital will encourage you breastfeed your twins and be on hand to help. Tell them that’s what you want to do and seek out the breastfeeding specialists on the ward to give you guidance. They will help you get the babies latched on and feeding properly. Tandem feeding Twin babies can be breastfed one at a time but this can be very time consuming, so most mums find an appropriate way to ‘tandem feed’ as they get established. There are several positions that can work for tandem feeding ranging from the ‘double clutch hold’, where the babies legs go under your arm on each side and their heads rest on pillows on your knees, to one where both their legs go in the same direction with one baby’s legs across your tummy and the other going under your arm. While it can take time to establish breastfeeding in the long run it is better for the baby and avoids the endless sterilising required for bottles for two babies. The expert view Philippa Bennett, National Childbirth Trust antenatal teacher and mother of five children including six year old twins Max and Jemima says: “The first few weeks can be absolutely exhausting. If the twins are different sizes, you might find you’re feeding one loads while expressing for another, so you have to look at them as individuals in the first few weeks unless they both come out at seven pounds and are raring to go. What most twin mums say is by about three weeks, if both of them are home, then they do try to feed them together with one on each side. When you stimulate your breasts by breastfeeding the other will often leak milk anyway so some say it’s more efficient to do both at the same time. “The initiation rate of breastfeeding is very high among mothers of twins, probably because mums really want to help their twins and be fair to both and also health professionals are very pro breastfeeding small babies. So in hospital the breastfeeding rate is very high but it tends to fall off because it becomes exhausting. Those mums that are most successful tend to be ones where the twins are both the same size. There is no reason why you shouldn’t have enough milk for twins. While most breastfeeding experts say follow the baby, mums of twins often find a routine easier.” A mum’s view Anni McTavish, mother to twin girls, Angel and Aoife, says: “I was keen to breastfeed but it was complicated because the twins were a bit early (32.5 weeks) so I couldn’t feed straight away. I expressed for three and a half weeks in a tiny room in the hospital. They encouraged me in the baby care unit to put them close to my breasts even though they weren’t sucking, just to get them to nuzzle in to stimulate the milk and begin to smell it and get the urge to suck. “I initially focused on one at a time. Angel was bigger and her mouth was bigger so I concentrated on getting her feeding well and that helped build my confidence. Aoife was harder to get feeding because she was tiny but a midwife swaddled her and that really helped. I had enough milk but it was hard to keep confident about that because there was so much emphasis — especially because they were premature — on the babies putting weight on. So some midwives were really encouraging me to give top-up bottle feeds but I didn’t want to. “I tried a bit of on-demand but it was too exhausting. I was advised to spread out the feeds three hourly so they got the good hind milk and had time to digest the feed and be hungry again. They each had their own boob. I’d put them on with their legs going out each side or I’d get one nestled in as if feeding on her own, grab the other one and pop her on and her legs going under my elbow with pillows under them to keep them propped up. It did take some manoeuvring at times.”
Posted on: Fri, 16 Aug 2013 19:22:54 +0000
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