Gila Leiter - Everything You Need to Know to Have a Healthy Twin Pregnancy: From Pregnancy Through Labor and Delivery . . . A Doctors Step-by-Step Guide for Parents for Twins, Triplets, Quads, and More!

A DELL TRADE PAPERBACK

Published By
Dell Publishing
a division of
Random House, Inc.
1540 Broadway
New York, New York 10036

Copyright 2000 by Gila Leiter, M.D., and Rachel Kranz
Illustrations copyright 2000 by Jackie Aher
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law.

DTP and the colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Leiter, Gila.

Everything you need to know to have a healthy twin pregnancy / Gila Leiter with Rachel Kranz.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-307-83403-4
1. Multiple pregnancypopular works. I. Kranz,
Rachel. II. Title.

RG567 .L45 2000
618.25dc21 00-031471

Published simultaneously in Canada

v3.1

To my husband Jim Lavin: without his selfless support for this project it would not have come to fruition.

To Yonit, Sarah, Talia, and Leore, our four beautiful daughters, who fill every day with joy, love, and on-the-job training.

To my patients, especially the brave mothers of multiples, who have been eager to see this book in print.

I want to thank my colleagues Dr. Sheldon Cherry and Dr. Joanne Stone, who carefully reviewed this manuscript and made important suggestions. Suzanne Coleman, MS, RNC, and Elinor Klein had excellent insights and Im grateful for their time. Sharon Friedman helped me realize this dream, even in the midst of a cross-continent move. My editor Danielle Perez has been a delight to work with, and her skill and enthusiasm is greatly appreciated. And finally, I want to thank Rachel Kranz, a gifted writer, who has become a dear friend.

Contents

Please Note

The information contained in this book is intended to complement, not substitute for, the advice of your obstetrician and your childrens pediatrician. In all matters relating to your pregnancy and the medical well-being of your newborn twins, you should consult with the appropriate physician, who can discuss your individual needs and those of your children.

W hen I found myself pregnant with what I thought would be my second child, I was a practicing obstetrician/gynecologist at a busy private practice in New York City with a growing number of multiple births under our care. Ive always enjoyed caring for pregnancies and deliveries of multiples, with their higher rate of prenatal problems and potentially difficult deliveriestheres always something unexpected to deal with. And I have always felt a special sympathy and awe for multiple moms. In any case, I always seemed to be the doctor on call when a set of twins was ready to deliver.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I found that I myself was pregnant with twins. Although as a doctor I was an expert in the field, as a woman I wanted the same comfort and reassurance that every expectant mother is looking for.

Of course, I had access to the latest in medical literaturebut like any expectant mother, I wanted to read something more personal. As I did during my first pregnancy, I went looking for a regular pregnancy book. Only this time I wanted a pregnancy book about twins.

I found so little to answer my needs! I am a doctor, so at least I had access to other information. But, I thought, what about all the mothers out there who arent doctors? My patients wanted more information than I could give them in an office visit, more than the standard few pages that most pregnancy books devote to the special needs of the twin pregnancy. I vowed that someday I would write a book for them, to share my professional and personal experience. This book is the result of that promise.

The Special Needs of Multiple Moms

Any pregnancy, delivery, and motherhood is challenging. But multiple moms know that their experience is demanding in a way that no singleton mother could possibly imagine. As writer Betsy Israel put it in her 1998 article in The New York Times Magazine, [M]others of twins, triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets will suggest that I, a mere mother of singletons, dont have a clue. We may all be moms but we do not belong to the same national chapter of motherhood.

What are some of the special needs of multiple moms? As the mother of twins, triplets, or quads, youll be at far greater risk of preterm labor and premature delivery. Youll face a far higher incidence of prenatal complications, and youll be more likely to have to take early leave from work or even to be treated with bed rest. You may face physical complications from the added strain of carrying additional weight for a longer period of time, and you might feel some extra psychological stress over wondering how youll feed and care for two or more babies at the same time.

You also have special needs with regard to diet, nutrition, and exercise. You should have more testing and monitoring during pregnancy and delivery. You may face a more complicated delivery, with a greater chance of cesarean section. And you might face special challenges in involving your partner, other children, extended family, and friends in a physically and emotionally demanding experience. But what a great reward at the end of the road!

Coming to Terms with Multiples

If youve just found out that youre going to have twins, triplets, or quadsor if youre considering any form of fertility treatment or Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART)youre likely to be wondering how you can handle the medical, physical, and psychological challenges. This book is geared to help you through. You might be a career woman in her 40s wondering about how you can balance the demands of your job with the very special needs of a multiple pregnancy. Or you might be the mother of two or three children concerned about caring for their needs as you gain 40 or 50 pounds and are instructed to avoid heavy lifting. Maybe youre in your early 20s, wondering how you and your partner will ever pay for two sets of baby clothes, two cribs, two sets of doctor bills. Perhaps you had ART after years of infertility, longing for one childbut were never prepared for the possibility that you might have two, three, or four at the same time.

Perhaps this is your first pregnancy, and youre wondering what to expect. Maybe this is your first multiple pregnancy, and youre asking yourself how this time will be different. Possibly you have a sister, aunt, mother, or girlfriend whos had twins, triplets, or quads, but maybeeven with the recent explosion in multiple birthsyoure the only multiple mom you know.

This book is your resource. In it, youll hear not only my voice but also the voices of my patients, as we share with you both my medical knowledge and our personal experience of this very special kind of pregnancy and birth. (The stories here are composites, representing the concerns and experiences that Ive observed in my years of private practice.)