Difficulty: Moderately challenging
Things You’ll Need:
- Baby Bibs
- Burp Cloths
- Juices
- Water
- Diapers
Step1
Before your babies arrive, line up as much household support as possible for the postpartum period. Try to arrange for help with your older children, housework and other responsibilities so you can concentrate on your twins.
Step2
Hydrate - when your twins are born, get used to drinking lots of fluids and eating frequent healthy snacks. You need extra calories to make enough milk for two babies.
Step3
Nurse your babies simultaneously or separately ' there are advantages and disadvantages to each method. It may be easier to nurse them one at a time, but it will take up more of your time each day. Nursing increases your prolactin levels and can stimulate milk production; it is also a time saver!
Step4
Practice a number of nursing positions; many mothers of twins find that the football hold (one baby tucked under each arm) is most successful.
Step5
If the football hold doesn't work for you, try nursing in the crisscross position, with your babies facing each other and the legs of one twin tucked behind the other twin.
Step6
Try the parallel position, with both babies facing the same way ' basically, one will be in the football hold, the other in the cradle hold.
Step7
Try to breast-feed at least some of the time even if your babies receive bottles. This will ensure that they get the antibodies and protective properties of your breast milk, as well as nutrition from a combination of breast milk and formula.
Step8
Alternate breasts rather than always nursing the same baby on the same breast. This gives both babies extra visual stimulation and improves visual coordination.
Step9
Contact a lactation consultant or La Leche League leader to ask about breast-feeding support; they may also be able to give you contact information for other mothers of multiples or groups that focus on parenting twins.
Comments
Anonymous said
on 8/8/2006 If at all possible, hire a postpartum doula during the day hours while your husband is at work. I can't tell you how many times I was prepared to quit nursing, only to be helped through it by my doula. In addition to nursing help, she prepared snacks and beverages and entertained my older child while I nursed. In addition, unlike my sisters, she had no problem with my bare breasts and helped me latch my girls without issue.
Anonymous said
on 8/8/2006 My twins are now nine months old. I am still nursing them both and find it very satisfying and bonding. The best way to continue to nurse twins is to nurse both at the same time. This allows for better let down and greater supply of milk. If one baby is a more vigorous nurser this will benefit the other twin by encouraging more let down response. You will need support from family to help get the little ones positioned and then again to take them off. It gets easier as they get bigger because they don't need as long at the breast as they did in the very early months.
Anonymous said
on 6/30/2006 If at all possible, hire a postpartum doula during the day hours while your husband is at work. I can't tell you how many times I was prepared to quit nursing, only to be helped through by my doula.In addition to nursing help, she prepared snacks and beverages and entertained my older child while I nursed. Unlike my sisters, she had no problem with my bare breasts and helped me latch my girls without issue.
Anonymous said
on 11/22/2005 Make sure to get a good nursing pillow, and use other pillows to find the most comfortable positions. Make sure your husband, friends, and family members are present in the early stages, you'll need their help to prop the babies up on the pillow. We co-slept with our boys for the first two months, that was our key to getting a little more sleep. Make sure to have plenty of nursing shirts, as nursing two can be a little revealing with all the new visitors popping in to visit. With a nursing shirt you can cover up a little, and not feel like you have to go hide to nurse. It's an extreme sport, but so rewarding! I'm still nursing my 11 month old twin boys.
Anonymous said
on 11/22/2005 I slept with my twins (one on either side of me). My husband was on the other side of the baby that was between us and I used one of those bed rails for toddlers on the outside edge of the bed so the other baby could not accidentally roll off the bed. We got a lot more sleep this way because all I had to do was roll over to the baby that needed to nurse and no one had to get up except to change a diaper. In this way I was able to exclusively nurse my twins and still get a decent night's sleep.