Birth plan for twins
How to Create a Birth Plan for Twins
Written by Kathleen Dailey
Reviewed by Traci C. Johnson, MD on December 15, 2020
In this Article
- What Is a Birth Plan?
- What Should I Include in a Birth Plan?
- Who Should Review the Birth Plan?
- Who Needs a Copy of My Birth Plan?
The day you give birth to your twins will be one of the most important of your life. Creating a birth plan ahead of time helps you decide how you want your labor and delivery to be, and lets others know your wishes. So when the big day arrives, you can focus on what's most important -- bringing your new babies into the world.
When you're expecting twins, it's common for them to make an early appearance. Almost 50% of twins arrive before 37 weeks. For this reason, it's helpful to have your birth plan ready well in advance of your due date.
What Is a Birth Plan?
A birth plan is an outline of your preferences during your labor and delivery. For example, it might include who you want with you during labor, whether you want pain meds, or if you want the lights dimmed. You can include anything you think will make your labor and birth more comfortable for you.
Keep in mind, though, that a birth plan is not set in stone because you cannot predict everything that may occur that day -- especially when you're having twins. You or your doctors may need to make changes to the plan once your labor begins. So it's important to try to stay flexible if something unexpected happens.
What Should I Include in a Birth Plan?
Although it's tempting to include many details in a birth plan, try to keep it short so it's easy for everyone to read.
Here are some items your birth plan might cover:
The basics: List your name, your doctor's name and contact information, where you plan to give birth, and who you’re planning to have there with you.
Atmosphere: Think about what will help you feel most comfortable.
Would you like the lights dimmed? Would you like a support person to take photos or video of your labor or birth?
Labor preferences: Include any preferences you have for your labor. For example, do you want to walk around freely? Do you want to use a birthing stool, ball, or chair? Would you like to take a warm shower or bath?
Pain meds:Pain management during labor is an important consideration. You may not plan to have an epidural, but you could change your mind during labor. Or you may know that you definitely want to have an epidural if possible. As you're defining your birth plan, ask your doctor about your options for pain relief as well as any questions you have about them. These could include breathing or massage.
Delivery preferences: There are many options to consider for your twins’ birth. If you're planning on a vaginal birth, would you prefer not to have an episiotomy unless it’s medically necessary? Do you want a mirror to watch your babies being born? Would you like your partner to cut the umbilical cords?
When you’re having twins, you’re more likely to need a C-section.
Even if it’s not your preference, it’s a good idea to include information about this procedure in your birth plan. For example, would you like your partner with you in the delivery room, if possible?
Feeding and Care: Once your twins are born, you’ll need to think about their feeding and care. For example, do you want to breastfeed right after delivery? Or are you thinking about bottle feeding or combining bottle feeding with breastfeeding? Would you like your twins in the room with you at all times, or would you prefer they stay in the nursery sometimes? Is it OK for the medical staff to offer your babies a pacifier or formula? If one of your twins is a boy, would you like them circumcised at the hospital? (Sugar water may be used at time of circumcision.)
Who Should Review the Birth Plan?
Review your birth plan with your partner and anyone else who will be with you in the delivery room, such as a labor coach or doula. Then ask your doctor to take a look at your birth plan, too.
The hospital or your doctor may have their own delivery policies for multiple births. Reviewing your birth plan ahead of time gives you time to help resolve any potential conflicts.
Who Needs a Copy of My Birth Plan?
Once your birth plan is set, give a copy to your doctor to keep with your medical records, and take another copy to the hospital or birth center. You'll also want to give copies of your birth plan to anyone who will be with you during labor. It's a good idea to bring a few copies with you to the hospital or birth center when you go into labor, too. Another doctor may wind up delivering your twins if your regular doctor isn't available.
It is not necessary to have a birth plan as all of these preferences can be made while in the hospital, but it is certainly important to think about all the options and discuss them with your partner and doctor.
Twins Trust | Birth Preferences
Vaginal birth
It’s a good idea to write a birth plan expressing your wishes on pain relief, who will be present at the birth, positions for delivery, and whether you want zygosity testing to see if the babies are identical (the placentas will be examined and cord blood sent for analysis, for which you may have to pay), as well as anything else that’s important to you.
Bear in mind that the plan will need to be flexible, taking account of how your labour goes.
Multiples are nearly always recommended to have continuous monitoring during labour, even when they haven’t been induced. Your midwife will strap a belt with small pads and sensors onto your tummy to assess your babies’ heartbeats and the intensity and frequency of contractions. You should still be able to move into different positions as you labour. If external monitors can’t clearly pick up two separate heartbeats (sometimes this is difficult if they are very close), the first baby can be monitored internally using a fetal scalp electrode attached to the babies’ scalp.
The first stage of labour consists of uterine contractions that push the babies head down into the pelvis and open the cervix. Once it is 10cm dilated, you are ready for the second stage: pushing them out. Some hospitals will automatically transfer you to an operating theatre at this point. The benefit of being in the operating theatre is there is a bigger space to accommodate the larger team present at a twin or more birth and there is quick access to surgery if it is needed during the delivery.
The drawback is moving during labour and being in a relatively more clinical and noisy environment than most delivery rooms. The number of people in the room or theatre will vary, but usually includes an obstetrician, anaesthetist, two midwives, one paediatrician for each baby, as well as students and junior staff. If you feel strongly that you don’t want lots of people present, ask for all non-essential staff to wait outside the room until they are needed. The essential staff will include the obstetrician, midwives and paediatricians and they may require assistance from the others for some of their tasks.
It can take anything up to two hours to deliver the first baby. Sometimes mothers are encouraged to give birth on their backs. It’s worth discussing your options on different birth positions and hospital policy beforehand. With support from your midwives, it is possible to deliver twins safely in different positions, including standing, squatting and on all fours.
If the second stage is going slowly or the babies seem to be developing distress, you may be advised to have an assisted delivery using forceps or ventouse (a vacuum device that attaches to the baby’s head).
Both procedures often involve an episiotomy (small cut to the vaginal wall) which is done under local anaesthetic if you haven’t already had an epidural.
After the first baby is born, the doctor will check the position of the second. It may be necessary to manually move the baby into a head down position. This can be done externally, but it may be necessary to pull the baby out by its feet or to turn the baby internally, which requires pain relief if you haven’t already had it.
It may only be a few minutes before the second baby is born, and it is usually less than 20 minutes. Second babies usually deliver more quickly and easily than first babies.
You should have an opportunity to cuddle your babies before the third and final stage of birth, when you deliver the placenta. Waiting to deliver the placenta naturally can take up to an hour and is not recommended with twins because the larger placentas carry a greater risk of bleeding. Your midwife will probably recommend you have an injection of a drug (Syntocinon or Syntometrine) to contract the uterus and help the placenta deliver quickly, usually within ten minutes.
This means you don’t need to push and you will lose less blood.
How to conceive twins naturally: table, folk remedies
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- Factors affecting the possibility of having twins
- How to Increase Your Chances of Conceiving Twins Naturally
Contents:
One child is enough for someone, and someone just dreams of having two in the family at once.
To answer the question of how to conceive twins or twins, you need to understand the mechanism of these phenomena. The difference between twins and twins is simple: identical twins, similar to each other, like two drops of water, are children born from one fertilized egg, which divides into two after fertilization, and twins appear with the simultaneous fertilization of two eggs at once, while children may be of different sexes and not at all similar to each other. It should be noted that nature has a mechanism that levels the birth of twins, since it is more difficult to endure and grow it.
But there are various factors that contribute to the simultaneous maturation of two eggs, due to which the conception of twins occurs. It is impossible to plan the pregnancy of identical twins, just as it is impossible to give an absolute guarantee of the conception of twins, but it is quite possible to provoke the simultaneous maturation of two eggs.
Factors affecting the possibility of having twins:
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heredity - the probability of conceiving twins is higher in those women in whose family there have already been multiple pregnancies;
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overweight - it is noted that twins are more often born precisely in obese women;
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age over 30 - the body can provoke the maturation of several follicles at once to increase the likelihood of conception;
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the onset of pregnancy during lactation increases the possibility of conceiving twins;
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with each subsequent pregnancy, the chances of having twins increase;
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mother's ethnicity - not at all puzzled over how to conceive twins, African women give birth to several children at once much more often than everyone else.
But the least likely multiple pregnancy occurs in Asian women.
What factors influence the conception of a boy or a girl, read also in our articles.
How to Increase Your Chances of Having Twins Naturally
First of all, you should consult with your doctor, perhaps he will advise what to do to conceive twins. It is better to prepare for this conversation: bring medical records (yours and your partner), find out in advance what diseases relatives on both sides suffer from and whether there were multiple pregnancies in the female line.
You may be lucky and your doctor will be able to give you a magic table on how to conceive twins, or teach you how to conceive twins by ovulation.
Among the medical methods that a doctor can also advise is treatment with drugs that include follicle-stimulating hormone, as a result of which two eggs can mature at the same time. Moreover, after the abolition of hormonal contraceptives, the so-called rebound effect is observed, when both ovaries are put into operation at once and twins can be conceived.
Also, do not forget about artificial insemination, when two or three fertilized eggs are implanted in a woman at once.
There are folk ways to conceive twins. First of all, the recommendations relate to nutrition designed to promote the maturation of more follicles. You will have to lean on dairy products, chicken eggs, whole grains, walnuts, pumpkin, bananas, carrots, red fish, liver. Try to find a product such as yams, which contain a set of substances that stimulate the ovaries. The largest number of twins is born in the Igbo city of Orana in southwestern Nigeria, for which it is even called the "Land of the Twins". The main food of the population there is yams.
A prerequisite to conceive twins is to give up alcohol and smoking.
To activate the work of the ovaries, you can start taking folic acid daily a few months before the planned conception, after consulting with your doctor.
It has been established that most twins are born in July, and least of all in the first month of winter.
This may be due to the length of daylight hours, which affects the release of follicle-stimulating hormone. Therefore, conception is best planned for the fall.
Climate can also indirectly affect - long daylight hours, high humidity, solar activity activate the ovaries. Therefore, you can plan a month-long vacation to a suitable place to increase your chances.
An interesting established fact is that twins are born four times more often in women who are already mothers of twins. Therefore, it is worth giving birth to twins only once, as the next time it will be easier to adjust.
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dates, characteristics, compatibility of the zodiac sign
Published:
Easy-going Gemini - lovers of noisy companies and adventures, love to gossip and unravel other people's secrets.
Why are they loved, what is their nature and compatibility with other people? The secrets of the third sign of the zodiac were revealed by astrologers Sergey Shestopalov and Irina Pigulevskaya.
The main characteristics of the sign Gemini
Smart and talented Gemini is always in the spotlight. In their quest for freedom, these people are able to quit overnight, get divorced, move and completely change their lives. We will find out what else the generous and courteous representatives of this sign are capable of.
Date and element of the sign
People born between May 22 and June 21 are under the auspices of Mercury, which makes them brilliant, artistic and sociable. Like all personalities born at the turn of the seasons, Gemini is charming and changeable.
What is the element of the zodiac sign Gemini? These are representatives of the trine of Air, which also includes Libra and Aquarius. The typical features of air signs (curiosity, eloquence, abundance of connections) are also found in Gemini.
Their symbol is the wind. The sign is never at rest, says Sergey Shestopalov, author of the book Predictive Astrology.
What does the zodiac sign Gemini look like? It is a paired sign depicting two male figures (twin brothers) or the Roman numeral two - two parallel lines united by two moons, waning and growing. What does the zodiac sign Gemini mean? It symbolizes the division of matter into parts and the soul in two, it is considered a symbol of internal torment and duality.
The half-brothers Castor and Pollux, mortal and immortal, became the symbol of the sign. Irina Pigulevskaya in the book “Your sign in myths and legends” writes that brotherly love conquered Zeus, and he turned Castor and Pollux into a constellation.
Character of Gemini, representatives of the sign
What is the character of Gemini? They are adventurers with powerful intellects and complex, dual natures. They are prone to sudden mood swings, reckless and independent.
They lead an active social life, love to shock the public, causing admiration of others.
Positive character traits of the sign:
- Sociability and easy temper.
- Generosity and responsiveness.
- Wit and enthusiasm.
- Mind and charisma.
Gemini is not perfect, they have negative character traits:
- Lies and pretense.
- Loquacity and frivolity.
- Indecision and instability.
- Selfishness and narcissism.
They speak quickly, but they do not know how to listen, therefore they perceive information superficially. They don’t like conservatives and love everything new, so there are many bright, outrageous talented personalities among them:
- Donald Trump and Prince William.
- Marilyn Monroe and Johnny Depp.
- Alexander Pushkin and Mikhail Sholokhov.
- Robert Schumann and Paul Gauguin.
Life, friendship, career and health of Gemini
In everyday life they are unpretentious, but neat. Cooking, washing, cleaning, absolutely independent. They do not like rituals and conventions, they prefer comfort and simplicity. They know how to take care of those they choose.
Talented Gemini is loved and appreciated in society. They are not only very attached to their parents, but also devoted to friends. They love parties, host guests at home. Talented scientists are obtained from them, since intellectual professions are suitable for Gemini. These people achieve the best success in such professions:
- Lawyer and prosecutor.
- Teacher and nanny.
- Journalist and translator.
- Marketer and copywriter.
- Guide and traveler.
To stay healthy, Gemini needs to get rid of bad habits. They are prone to diseases of the skeleton and spine, have weak lungs. They often suffer from arthritis and migraines, colds and allergies.
Gemini in love and family, who is compatible with
Who are Gemini compatible with? They reach mutual understanding with representatives of the elements of Air (Libra, Aquarius) and Fire (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius). Gemini lives with them, raises children, sometimes from different marriages, since the air sign is easily divorced and again goes down the aisle.
What are Gemini looking for in a relationship? This is communication, joint pastime, recreation and entertainment. Passion and intimacy are second to none. They can negotiate with anyone, because they have incredible flexibility and the ability to adapt to almost any situation, according to Cass and Janey Jackson, authors of the book Astrology.
Who is not compatible with Gemini? Gemini does not get along with representatives of the Earth sign (Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn). It is not easy with Gemini for water signs - Cancer, Pisces and Scorpio. The accumulated mutual claims lead to a break in relations.
Let's take a closer look at what Gemini can expect from relationships with other signs:
- A wonderful union of two kindred souls with Aries. They create a strong, interesting and active couple. There are enough adventures in the life of a couple to live together to old age.
- An honest relationship with Taurus. They see each other's shortcomings, learn to smooth out sharp corners. To cope with the growing irritation due to the pragmatism of the earthly partner, hobbies, sports and recreation will help Gemini.
- With Gemini. Partners understand each other very well. They have a similar life credo, goals and values. To strengthen relationships, they must keep promises, be faithful and respectful.
- Conflicts are not uncommon in a pair with Cancer. The difference in temperament and attitude to life do not match, which creates a negative atmosphere in a couple. To be together, you need to agree and share areas of responsibility.
- With Leo, strong attraction alternates with outbursts of irritation and aggression. A very temperamental couple in which partners are interested, but difficult. To be together, you need to give Leo leadership.
- Virgo considers Gemini to be too superficial, and they do not tolerate partner's criticism. Signs are better friends than dating. In addition, they are not compatible intimately.
- With Libra Gemini easily reach mutual understanding. The couple enjoy each other's company. The head here is Gemini, and Libra remains the role of inspirer of the union. Easily enter into marriage and work to save it.
- With Scorpio. These people are too different, which is noticeable at first sight. Everything will be in a pair: jealousy, the struggle for power and material resources. There will be no harmony and common plans in it, each on its own.
- With Sagittarius there will be love, passion, interest and desire at first sight. Both partners are active, they have common goals, tastes and interests.
Power struggles can undermine the foundation of a relationship. - A strong Capricorn is able to cope with the windy Gemini. Two opposites attract and can no longer part. Both are smart and striving for success, more often converge in adulthood.
- With Aquarius. The perfect compatibility of the signs of the elements of Air guarantees a happy marriage. Modern, active, future-oriented people will become an example for everyone. Possible common business or business for the soul.
- With Pisces. Partners prefer to transfer responsibility further. They have low compatibility, and only a small part of people will decide on marriage at the age of 45+. An interesting experience without a sequel.
Gemini are charming and caring people, not without cunning. Numerous connections allow them to succeed in life, but the path to success can be thorny. Having understood the dual nature of the sign, it is easier to get along and make friends with him.
