The twins at birth and thereafter!

The majority of children are born as single. 

There is an increase in the number of twin pregnancies. 

Most families would be aware of the twin pregnancies, thanks to the foetal ultrasound done in the third month or earlier months of pregnancy.

There are some differences  that a mother would experience in a twin pregnancy. Often they are medically manageable. 

It is after the twins are born the real challenges to care for both of them surface. From the way both have to be breast fed, at three hours of interval, there are challenges for the mother. Normally with a single baby moth gets a rest in between the breast feeding as a baby would be asleep. Feeding both babies would take about an hour or more as against twenty minutes for a single baby. Thus the time gets prolonged while taking care of both babies. Often other members in the family would offer help in bathing babies and looking after the personal needs of the babies. Most twin pregnancies end up in delivering the babies by Caesarean section in which case, the mother takes about three months for full recovery from the operation. 

Most babies if born at full term of t pregnancy would be ready to interact socially by about three months. That is why a mother would find the experience more demanding and perhaps stressful. The bonding between a mother and her babies at this time is crucial for developing attachment behaviour. For this to happen, a motor herself has to be directly involved in the care of her babies. 

By the time the babies are about six months they are mobile in the bed and would soon be ready to move about by crawling to explore the environment. It is during this time both babies might have two different temperaments. One is easily consolable and the other is not so. A mother might get unsettled in coping with the different behaviour patterns of the two babies. One might sleep less at night and more during the day. One might feed well and adjust to three hour feed and the other might demand more feeds or feeding time. 

I have come across mothers beginning to show the strain of mothering twin babies when they enter to the sixth months of the babies. 

I have heard from some others about the way they adjust to this difficult situation. They hand over the upkeep of the home to someone else and stay free of that responsibility. 

From the early months of pregnancy some mothers help an older sibling, especially if he or she is less than three years of age, by getting help from the father of the child or another person at home. He or she gets the child used to another person to give bath, get the child ready, feed the child, etc so that this responsibility is fully taken over when the twins have arrived. 

The extra physical care of the twins when they are in the age group of nine months to one year is what would exhaust a motor as by that age they are awake most of the day time during the day. They might follow a different rhythm during the day and night, in which case the mother would need extra help to meet all the needs of both children. 

Many mothers resort to taking leave of absence from work for one year from their professional work, to which they are entitled according to the current maternal benefits offered by their employees.  

I have come across fathers availing paternal leave that they are entitled to, in some situations to be a buffer during this adjusting process. 

By about 18 month the twins are ready for more engagement emotionally, socially, behaviourally that some parents would use the benefit a dependable crèche close by to let children be exposed to a social environment for three or so hours each day. Most parents take turns to avail of part time jobs to tide over this period of extra demands. 

All children are with parents only till bout three years of age. After that they share the day time between home and pre-school.

This calls for greater vigilance to give children best of experiences at home till three years of age, for them to feel secure and safe. 

The first two years of  twins are crucial that both parents are to be  equally involved in giving them the experiences of stability they would need. 

I have come across parents seeking the help of neighbours during the week ends to involve tree children socially so that parents have few hours of respite form the routine they go through during the week. 

There are special circumstances when the twins are born pre-term or with low birth weights. They would need additional support. 

The department where I work has brought out a publication recently, which would be available for parents from 15th September, 2021 to observe the developmental process of children from birth to five years. The booklet is a simple to use to guide for parents to observe the developmental processes of children in the domains of vision, hearing, motor skills, behaviour, language, pre-school skills, sleep, etc.    

Taking care of twins is different form taking care of one baby!

I shall come back to discuss more about parenting of twins. 

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)