Khadijah's story: breastfeeding pre-term twins
I joyfully breastfed my first four children for increasing amounts of time (from 4 months to 3 years) so when I discovered I was expecting twins I expected that I would breastfeed them too. I knew we might have some challenges ahead but, as is the way of the world, didn't anticipate just how many....
I thought these babies would arrive a little bit early, as my build is very slight and I was having regular contractions by 27 weeks, but I hoped to get to 34+ weeks, and spent lots of time with twin mamas who went to 40+ weeks to stay focused on the normal and natural, healthy multiple goal. Alas, at 32+ 3 weeks I woke up to a bloody show and knew that the previous days' rushes had been doing some serious work.
For the worst eventuality, I had already bought some helpful postcards from the lactivist to express my desire that my babies should receive ONLY breastmilk, and during the many conversations we had with health professionals in the brief time I was labouring in the hospital, we repeated over and over that the babies were only to be breastmilk fed.
Not one to worry about overstating a point; it was also in BOLD in my maternity notes. I thought they'd get a pretty clear picture.
My son and daughter started out on intravenous feeds whilst their breathing stabilised and then as my milk came in they started to have tube feeds into their tummies. On day 4, at 23.30 (seems to be a target time to get mothers to agree to things they won't in the cold light of day) I had a lot of pressure to give some formula, as they apparently had no expressed milk for the 1am feed. I explained that I would express all night long to avoid formula, (as I had already discussed with this same nurse just half an hour earlier), that 3 of my 4 previous children have dairy intolerances, and that no formula should be given under any circumstances.
That night was horrendous! I put every bit of energy into expressing breast milk and taking the milk down to the unit myself. A postpartum mother running around like a mad woman. Thank God I hadn't agreed to the automatic cesaerean when I'd been admitted, but where is the support for women (all of us mothers) who should be resting?
It paid off. Within 24 hours I was expressing enough for quadruplets. Yes! to the wonders of a woman's body. We had quite a few more incidents over the next four weeks, but by then my son was ready to breastfeed on demand and wasn't satisfied by anything else. Yummy Mummy, lucky me!
My daughter came home at the same time with a nasogastric tube; breastfeeding for about 5 minutes before being topped up. It is the most bizarre routine to have to feed 3 hourly top ups, when breastfeeding on demand is more often hourly. Over the next four weeks we were 'allowed' to settle into my daughter's own routine and eventually fly solo. It was a constant battle against the charts that said how much she should be gaining and the health professionals monitoring what they considered acceptable or not...but we got through it still breastfeeding - with a lot of moral support from a lactation consultant and feeding advisor, some lovely meals from friends, my children's patience and my husband's conviction that it would all work out in the end. (Thank you, Darling!)
And now they are happy, healthy and attached one year olds and we're praying we'll be breastfeeding a long while yet...
for anyone wanting to breastfeed twins, these are my breastfeeding tips:
- Express breast milk as soon after birth as possible (within 3 hours)
- Ignore people who tell you to take it easy. Keep expressing breast milk every 1-3 hours
- Give yourself a 4/5 hour stretch at night to sleep when you need it, but only once the milk has come in.
- Express breast milk more frequently at night if you wake up naturally. You would breastfeed your baby/ies through the night. Expressing breast milk is harder, but it keeps the supply bountiful.
- Eat and drink to thirst. Have handy snacks (dried fruit, cereal bars, fresh fruit)
- Don't use bottles to give expressed breast milk to your baby. They are awful to get rid of later on. If your child is the one who gets nipple confused, it can ruin your chances of feeding from the breast. Stick with tube feeds or try cup feeding.
- A nursing supplementer can be used (though it was frowned upon when I did: different units have different policies to overcome)
- Do rest as much as possible and accept as much help as you can so that you can focus on your baby/ies in hospital and getting them and you strong
- Cry. Speak to mothers who have been there before
- Read about kangaroo care and practice it as much as possible. The nurses might not like the hassle but your baby/ies will.
- Call a breastfeeding helpline as many times as you need. They are there to listen, not just to give information. You can benefit from both types of support.
Created: November 23, 2009
