Any twin stories to share?

KayJayDee

I had an unmedicated, birthing center birth with my first child and now we are having twins.  When we were planning #2, we were totally on board for a homebirth.  My first labor was short (6 hours) and our birthing center is almost an hour away.  I did not want to go through transition in the car - again!  

When we found out we were having twins and realized we'd have to deliver in a hospital, I was really disappointed (about the hospital, not the twins!), but decided to make the best of it.  I found an OB that is very pro-natural birth and although the doctor vs midwife experience has been totally frustrating on many levels, I know that it is safer to proceed with a hospital birth, as multiple pregnancies can change in heartbeat and above all else, I want to bring home two healthy babies.

My goal is to have another unmedicated, vaginal birth.  I know that it all depends on the position of the babies, so a huge part of this process has been accepting that ultimately, I have very little control over what happens.  I'm not on board for a breech delivery, and my doctor won't deliver Baby B breech, so if one or both babies are breech, I'll end up with a c-section.  If both are head down, we're all on the same page that we're going to go for a vaginal birth.  

Any positive natural twin birth stories out there?  How did you manage it?  Did you have hospital requirements that you ran up against?  Ours does not require that twins be delivered in an OR and my doctor has assured me that I won't have to get an epidural, but has suggested that one could be put in place w/o the meds turned on "in case" it's needed.  I don't really want to do that, but in the event of an emergency, I don't want to be put completely under if they have to get a baby out and I don't have an epidural in place.

I'm walking a fine line here... I think the labor and delivery have the potential to go fast.  I don't want to go to the hospital so soon, that I end up hooked up to monitors and on IVs, etc if they're not necessary.  But, at the same time, I want to be realistic about this and do whatever is in my babies' (and my) best interest healthwise.  

If you've read this far into my rambling thoughts, thank you!  I'd appreciate any suggestions and experience you have to share! 

 

pillowass

No story to share but I have been thinking about this a lot myself so I'll share some of what I have learned.

I have heard (from the internet, for what it's worth) that when they place the epi needle w/out meds, they will have to run some of the medication through to confirm that it is correctly placed. I would ask your doctor about this. I would think it would be hard to have a little taste of relief only to have it turned off a few seconds later.

Even if both babies are head down, the second one can shift positions after the first is out. If you watch vaginal twin births on youtube (there are a bunch!) you will notice that most times the doctor goes elbow-deep into the woman between births and makes adjustments to the second baby. I think it's pretty common to have the second one come out breech - I know that 5 out of the 6 ob's in my practice will do breech extraction with baby B. I wonder if your ob would recommend c-section for baby b if s/he couldn't get Baby B to point head down?

My strategy at this point is to try to mentally prepare for many scenarios, from c-section to med-free, and try not to get too attached to any one outcome. I'm open to the epi if labor is prolonged, I end up on my back, or the babies are positioned in a way that is not favorable. That said, I'm still hoping for a natural birth.

GL to you! I totally sympathize - it's a difficult adjustment.  

zaramarie81

I can't share as a mother of twins but as a twin myself. 30 years ago, when ultrasound wasn't routine during pregnancy, twin pregnancies could be missed. My mom literally arrived at the hospital in labor not knowing she was giving birth to twins - and neither did her OB (in all fairness, my mother had suggested she might be carrying twins earlier in pregnancy but was given an emphatic "no" by a specialist who could only detect one heartbeat). So yeah, she showed up thinking she was having one, 12lb baby. When my twin sister (Baby A) crowned and she was clearly a 6lb baby, the doctor immediately exclaimed, "Oh! There must be another one... " They had 8 minutes to prep for my arrival. All went completely fine and my mother had a vaginal birth (although she had received an epidural and an episiotomy prior to them realizing she was having two 6lb babies instead of one 12! They really thought she was going to have a difficult vaginal birth or even a c-section when they thought we were a singleton... funny how having twins ended up being the far easier road!).

So, all this to say... even in the strangest of circumstances where not even the OB is prepared, a healthy, vaginal twin birth is very possible. Congrats on your twins... I've always loved being a twin, and my parents actually found us quite easy to raise because we had each other for companionship!

Edited: For clarity/grammar

macchiatto

You've seen me post on the Multiples board so you may remember parts of my stories. I did end up with an induction and because of that, I did get an epidural when I was about 7 cm. (I ended up being a little too impatient with my own birthing plan and had the dr break baby A's water when I was barely progressing after 4 hrs of Pitocin, walking, etc. After the amniotomy, the contractions came so intense and on top of each other that there was no time to regroup in between and my natural pain management techniques just weren't touching it. I made it 2 hrs after that before getting the epi.) That said, there were still many parts of my birth plan that worked out: delivered in my LDR suite with low lighting and minimal personnel (OR team was prepped and ready to go but my OB made them wait out in the hallway during my whole 3-hr pushing stage); very supportive nurses and OB; intermittent fetal monitoring so I could walk around and labor in different positions before the epi; Baby A was placed on my chest for kangaroo care as soon as he was born and stayed there during the breech extraction of Baby B; delayed all nonessential newborn procedures for several hours after the birth to allow time for nursing and bonding; babies roomed in with me the whole time, etc. Overall, as much as I would've preferred to go into labor on my own and hopefully med-free, I was really happy with how things ended up and how supportive and respectful the hospital staff were of our birth plan and preferences.

Hope things go well for you!