WBW - Breastfeeding Twins and More

[Maribeth]

World Breastfeeding Week starts August 1 this year, and as always, StorkNet celebrates for the whole month of August.

So multiples moms, tell us tips for successfully breastfeeding multiples! We'll archive to help new multiples moms.

Check out the breastfeeding cubby (not yet updated for WBW - check it out August 1) and the multiples cubby.

Thanks!
Mari

[Sheryl]

This is great Mari, the cubby really needs more breastfeeding information! Unfortunately I didn't breastfeed, so I can't contribute any advice. But I know some of these great ladies did, so I'm sure they would love to help out.

Thanks!

[yep_theyre_twins]

I used a regular bobby for the short time that I breastfed my girls and it worked great. I always had them in the football hold which I found worked the best for us. Whenever Dh was home he used to help me get them positioned. When he wasn't home I found myself sitting on the couch and pulling one up and getting her latched on, and then would grab the other one and pull her up. Difficult yes, but a great exprience.


Mia

[hedra]

Lessee... tips.

1) Find an LC who is comfortable with twins issues. One who had twins herself is a good start, or check with a Mothers of Multiples group to see who their recommended LCs are. "Regular" LCs may or may not have enough specific information to help with twins, especially premature ones, and I've heard rather a number of them give up pretty fast even with dedicated-to-nursing multiples mommies.

2) Get good physical support. I liked the EZ2Nurse pillow, which is set up for nursing two at a time, and for setting them up so they stay put themselves. There are also other multiples-specific pillows, including a boppy-type one that is just for twins/+. I'm tall, so regular boppies are too low (short) for me, and the EZ2Nurse one has a back-strap that holds it in place (USE IT! I didn't at first, but boy what a difference when I did!).

3) Set up at least one nursing station, with food and drinks. We bought a mini fridge to put food and drinks in next to the bed, so I was never far from something nutritious and hydrating!

4) Get help, at least for the first few weeks (6-8 is good). Even just a few hours a day makes a huge difference to your stress level, and stress affects how well you let down, and also how well you eat, and how well you rest, etc., all of which affect your patience for dealing with two babies at the breast. I scheduled my mom, my MIL and FIL, and my step-mom to cycle through the house for 6 weeks, and then come with me for doctor appointments after that. I had one day 'off' each week, which proved the point that having help daily was a blessing! LOL!

5) Try try try again. I never much cared for the football hold with my older two. I didn't try it right away with the twins, as a result. Once I tried it, though, WOO! It worked beautifully for weeks. Keep trying different holds, at different ages, to see what works.

6) Get the book Mothering Multiples. A big help for you, your DH/DP, and your parents/ILs, too! My mom read it, and said it helped her a lot to see where she'd help me best, and just helped to understand what I was facing. Laods of good bfing, ebm-feeding, positioning, and other breastfeeding advice in there...

7) Get enough sleep. Our rule was that I did not get out of bed until I'd had 8 hours of sleep (total, not continuous). That meant that I'd go to bed at 8:30 PM, and get out of bed at 11 AM or so, most days (sometimes later). It was a HUGE help to not be exhausted. (Exhaustion kills my supply and my patience...)

8) Do what you must. One of the main things with the multiples moms I know IRL is their practicality. There's no room for guilt and no room for half-measures. You don't have the luxury of futzing about with stuff. You MUST take care of yourself, because life quickly becomes a disaster if you don't. The majority of them also feel that you MUST get your children as much breastmilk as possible, for as long as possible, because one sick child is a pain, but sick twins is a CRISIS. To make them as healthy as possible, breastfeed, or pump and feed EBM, or feed a combination of EBM and formula, as long as possible. At the same time, if at some point pumping makes it impossible for you to care for yourself, and you've already gotten help, support, and done everything else you can, then you transition down to formula (staying on EBM partial feeds as long as you can), and you carry NO guilt about it. Pumping for one is hard. Pumping for two is HARD. You do what you can, and then when you can't do that anymore, you move on, knowing you did your best to make your kids as healthy as possible. There's no luxury of being able to handle a sick kid, you've got two (or more!). And there's no luxury of being able to push your margins too far now and then, as you usually don't have any margin to spare. The limit is the limit, and that's all there is. (Multiples mommies are some of the most down-to-earth practical and outcomes-oriented people I know, and some of the least prone to guilt about their choices - as usually, it wasn't choice but necessity that drove them!)

9) Get pictures sometime. I love the pics my DH 'snuck' of me with two babies latched on, reading a story to my other two. Your kids will love those pictures, later.

[carrins1]

All of what Hedra said!

I think the "one day at a time" attitude really helped me. Nursing was working for us, so as long as it was, I did it. The lack of pressure about it is probably the reason why we are still nursing today. (2x a day...)

[hedra]

Definitely one day at a time! Or one feed at a time, even, LOL!

I thought of a few other things...

10) Learning to tandem feed was a blessing, but I had to be careful not to NEED feeds to be tandem, and enjoy both the solo feeds and tandem ones, as they arose. I ended up tandeming about half the time, and not about half the time. Best of both worlds - the tandem feeds allowed me to get more done (less time), get both to sleep at once (nursing down - sometimes!), and allowed the girls to get to know each other through touch in a comforting way... the non-tandem ones allowed me to spend one-on-one time with each baby.

11) Expect things to change more often and in more ways than with a singleton. One will develop latch issues while the other is having jealousy problems and pushing away the other at the breast, or one will be having a growth spurt slightly ahead of the other. It is more complicated, but if you let things go (as carrins1 says - one day at a time!), you can roll with it.

12) Find ways to think of nursing two as 'working' for you. The more positive feelings you can put into your head about it early on, the more you'll be able to smile when people ask in ALARM or ASTONISHMENT if you are REALLY breastfeeding twins. One of the benefits I got rather unexpectedly was that one of my babies was a somewhat lazy sucker, and took FOREVER to get a letdown when she nursed alone. However, tandem nursing, the other twin would get the letdown started sooner, and her sister would reap the benefits of that. So tandem nursing twins made for shorter feeds than a solo feed of the first twin. WOO! It also reduced her frustration at the breast, so I had a happier baby.

12) Speaking of people's comments, do bask in their praise and admiration, but make sure you make it clear that while it is work at times, it doesn't take a superhuman to do it - you never know what newly pregnant-with-multiples mommy will be the next to encounter that person, and it is nice to hear 'oh, I met someone who was nursing twins, and she said it was hard at times, but definitely doable if you get a little help and encouragement.'

13) if the babies don't synch up or stay synched up, and you're not sure if you're feeding them enough at first (in the early days, before they make it VERY clear when they need to eat and won't accidentally sleep through two feeds in a row), a chart for at least one of the babies is a big help. It also is very annoying to chart feeds (and wet and dirty diapers), but worth doing for a few days at least- it is much harder to get a 'feel' for each baby's cycles and needs if you don't have a concrete way of doing it. Even with my clearly not identical babies, I'd mix up who'd eaten last, from which side. When one of them developed jaundice, I had to have her on a bili blanket and chart wet and dirty diapers, plus feeds (duration, side, and time). It was a pain to do, but I learned a lot!

14) There are a lot of ways to handle the 'who gets which side when' question. Mostly, at first, I did one baby to the same side per day, swapping each day. That way neither side got to be complete habit (which can be a problem if one has a nursing strike), and both sides kept up comparable production. Now, I do whatever side whenever, with the fuller side tending to go to the baby who is more prone to draining the breast all at once, and the less full side going to the baby who is more of a snack-and-return baby.

15) Learn to nurse two while sleeping. When they were sick, fussy from something I'd eaten (all four of my kids have food allergies and cry frantically if I eat the wrong things), or were teething, nothing but nursing them together seemed to help. Night time, this is a problem if you can't nurse them both at once AND sleep. At first, I used the EZ2Nurse pillow, and they nursed and slept on that while I slept propped up on pillows. Later, I slept in the recliner while they nursed on my lap. Now, they are big enough to nurse leaned onto my chest while I sleep on my back (each tucked into the gap under my arms). Find something that works, so you don't lose TOO much sleep (you'll still lose sleep, but the less the better!).

16) Do whatever it takes to make life easier for you while you're nursing, and try to get others in your family and friends circle to do so, too. I got lucky, and my DH is a big nursing advocate. Even with two other kids to care for, he made nursing the twins a top priority, and making my life easy so that I could do it was his job. If I was nursing, he lived to serve me (as much as possible - he was also wrangling the other two kids!). I was immensely grateful, in return. His job, he said, was 'husband', so he 'husbanded' - that is 'protect and conserve the resources of the family', including mommy and her sanity.

[Maribeth]

Refreshing for World Breastfeeding Week 2008!