Best Way to Cope with a High-Risk Pregnancy If You Are Carrying Twins

If you’re carrying more than one baby during your pregnancy, you are more likely to develop complications. Being pregnant with multiples, for example, can give rise to health complications such as anemia, ges­tational diabetes, pregnancy induced hypertension (PIH), and intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR). We now focus on the fact that hav­ing a complication of pregnancy often provokes preterm labor and, if undetected or uncontrolled, can lead to the premature birth of your babies.

If you’re carrying twins, you have nearly a 50 percent—or one in two—chance of delivering prematurely. Many health care profes­sionals also believe that multiples deliver early because the uterus starts contracting when the babies and other pregnancy material reach a cer­tain weight and size or begin to overstretch the uterus.

Carrying more than one baby in a pregnancy increases the likeli­hood that your babies will be of low birth weight. Your body may have difficulty accommodating two or more approximately 6-1/2-pound babies at once and therefore delivers before full term. Low birth weight may also occur because your babies’ growth slows.

Usually, the growth of twins is about the same as singletons until about 28 to 30 weeks, when their weight gain slows down and begins to lag behind singleton pregnancies of the same gestation. Sometimes this slower growth may occur before 28 weeks gestation. One-half of all twin births are of low birth weight—less than 2500 grams, or 5.5 pounds, ounces—and almost all triplets or higher number multiples are low birth weight. These incidences of low birth weight may be because of early delivery, because the babies’ growth slowed during the later part of the pregnancy, or a combination of both factors.

Coping with a High-Risk Pregnancy

If you have a pregnancy with multiples, not only will you have to adapt to the notion of providing care and financial support for more than one baby, but getting the babies to arrive healthy may require extra work. You will inevitably have more periods of stress. In addition, if you’re placed on bed rest to aid in continuing your pregnancy, you must somehow cope with one or more of the following:

•  Sudden isolation
•  Inactivity
•  Fear for the health of your babies
•  Managing a household from your bed
•  Negotiating an unexpected transfer of responsibilities at your job

All of this has to be managed when you do not feel sick, making it hard to believe the bed rest prescription is even necessary. It will seem that you’re being asked to stop doing all the things you are used to doing and just lie down and await the birth of your babies. Some women carrying twins start feeling very tired in their second trimester and welcome the added rest but many find it to be a very trying period in their lives.

Learning all you can from your doctor about your pregnancy with multiples will go a long way toward making you feel more in control of your situation. Here are a few things you can do:

•  Ask your doctor for printed information on your condition.
•  Be sure you know what to look for and what symptoms to report to your doctor.
•  Get support from women who have already given birth to multiples. They will be able to tell you about their experiences with pregnancy and give you an idea of what it will be like once the babies are born. If you have Internet access, there are a num­ber of support sites and chat rooms for women pregnant with multiples.