Breastfeeding Multiples:
Good Nutrition Means Healthy Twins
Joanie Randle
Athens, Georgia, USA
From: NEW BEGINNINGS, Vol. 11 No. 5, September-October 1994, pp. 147-9
We provide articles from our publications from previous years
for reference for our Leaders and members. Readers are cautioned to
remember that research and medical information change over time.
When I discovered I was pregnant
with my third child, I told my doctor that his suggestion that I might
be carrying twins was ridiculous. There was no family history of twins.
To me, having twins was as likely as winning a million dollar sweepstakes.
It was something that happened to other people, not me.
But by my twelfth week of
pregnancy I needed maternity clothes, and an ultrasound revealed that,
indeed, there were two babies. What a shock! Suddenly, my hopes for
a third uneventful, low-tech birth disappeared, along with my self-confidence.
Could I carry twins to term? What about breastfeeding?
I drove home in a state of
denial and disbelief. My doctor's parting words rang in my ears: "High
risk...bed rest...probability of premature labor and delivery...50%
chance of a cesarean...don't forget to take two prenatal vitamins a
day from now on...."
I knew that good nutrition
was basic to a healthy pregnancy. It seemed especially important in
the case of a multiple pregnancy, so immediately I bought a book entitled
Having Twins by Elizabeth Noble. It was the most informative book I
read on multiple pregnancy and birth. Two sentences struck me as especially
important. The first was "studies show that caloric intake in the presence
of high protein, more than any other factor, helps avoid low-birth weight
babies and infant death." The other said "Daily intake of 4,000 calories
and 140-150 grams of protein for a twin pregnancy...has generally resulted
in term babies weighing at least seven pounds."
At first it seemed that eating
4,000 calories a day would be easy. Visions of banana splits, hot fudge
sundaes, and plates of fettucini alfredo filled my head. Eating 4,000
nutritious calories, however, was a challenge. I learned to make every
bite count and to eat many small meals instead of three big ones. I
experienced tremendous nausea during the first six months of my pregnancy.
It was worse when I didn't eat enough on a regular basis and subsided
when I ate before I really got hungry.
I began each day with a large
glass of water, a bowl of whole-grain cereal with milk, and a glass
of orange juice. Later that morning I had two scrambled eggs with grated
cheese, toast, and a yogurt milk shake. Lunch was light: soup or sandwich,
cottage cheese and pineapple, orange juice, and fruit. Split pea soup
was a favorite lunchtime meal because it contains lots of vegetables
and is easy to prepare. I often froze the soup in small ziplock sandwich
bags for lunches.
Drinking plenty of water
throughout the day is another very important component of good prenatal
nutrition. With two amniotic sacs demanding fluid, I needed a lot of
water. Keeping a sports bottle of water with me at all times was helpful.
I made it a habit to drink a large glass of water after every trip to
the bathroom to ensure that I was getting enough to drink.
Every day at about 3:00 PM,
I had a high-protein shake, a peanut butter sandwich, or an apple with
cheese. This was a consistent source of 50 g of high quality protein.
Just blend one cup of whole milk, 1/3 cup nonfat dry milk powder, 4
tablespoons soy powder, 1 banana, honey to taste, and some frozen fruit.
If I was low on protein at the end of the day, I often had another of
these shakes at bedtime.
I tried to keep dinner simple:
grilled meat or fish, green salad and steamed vegetables, rice, pasta,
or potatoes. Striving for variety kept our meals interesting as well
as nutritious. I also had a snack before bed and another in the middle
of the night, otherwise I woke up nauseated and very hungry. My snacks
were often a high protein bar I found at my local health food store,
and a glass of orange juice.
It was too hard to keep track
of my protein and calorie intake without writing down everything I ate
in a food diary. A weekly chart with the days of the week across the
top and food items down the left-hand side was also useful. Cookbooks
such as WHOLE FOODS FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY provided calorie and protein
information at the end of each recipe.* Many health food stores carry
charts which break down food items into the calorie, fat, carbohydrate,
and protein content of each.
Keeping track of my food
intake during my twin pregnancy became a hobby; what I ate seemed to
be the only thing I had any control over during a time when I felt very
vulnerable. I knew that if I ate well, I could give my babies the best
chance of being born full-term with normal birthweights. As a result,
my health was excellent. I was never confined to bed and never experienced
anemia, high blood pressure, toxemia, gestational diabetes, or premature
labor. My babies were born by a scheduled cesarean section (one was
breech and the other transverse) at 38 weeks.
Lilyanne was born first and
weighed a breathtaking 9 lbs. 2 oz. Henry Thomas was delivered second
and was a very respectable 8 lbs. 4 oz. We set a birth weight record
for twins in Athens, Georgia! My doctor was shocked; he had never seen
such large twins.
After worrying all those
months about carrying the babies to term, breastfeeding them was a welcome
relief. Unfortunately, I stopped paying as much attention to what I
ate. When I began feeling lightheaded and dizzy, I discussed my symptoms
with a friend who is a lactation consultant. She suggested that I was
not eating enough: exclusively nursing twins is a nutritionally demanding
job! Such a mother often produces two liters of milk a day or more!
When I went back to the diet I followed so carefully when I was pregnant,
the dizzy spells went away. I have continued to follow my "twin diet,"
including the two prenatal vitamins a day. Lilyanne and Henry Thomas
are now fourteen months old and are very busy nursing toddlers. I have
lost all 65 pounds I gained when I was pregnant, plus a few more.
I feel so incredibly fortunate.
I had an uneventful multiple pregnancy that resulted in a term delivery
of above average weight twins. I exclusively breastfed for seven months.
I look forward to nursing them until they wean themselves. I never would
have believed that I could have twins. Maybe I should find that million
dollar sweepstakes entry....
RESOURCES
Brewer, Gail Sforza and Tom
Brewer. What Every Pregnant Woman Should Know: The Truth about Diet
and Drugs in Pregnancy. Revised Ed. Penguin Books. Baltimore, MD.
1985.
The Brewer Medical Diet
for Normal and High Risk Pregnancy: a Leading Obstetrician's Guide to
Every Stage of Pregnancy. Fireside. New York, NY. 1983.
Brewer, Thomas, MD. Metabolic
Toxemia of Late Pregnancy: a Disease of Malnutrition. Keats. New
Canaan, CT. 1982.
Kitzinger, Sheila. The Complete Book of Pregnancy and Childbirth.
Knopf. New York, NY. 1988.
Noble, Elizabeth. Having Twins. Houghton Mifflin. Boston, MA. 1991.
Riordan, Jan and Kathleen G. Auerbach. Breastfeeding and Human
Lactation. Jones and Bartlett. Boston, MA. 1993.
*The revised edition of WHOLE FOODS FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY provides
a more complete nutritional analysis of each recipe.
Last updated Friday, October 6, 2006 by njb.
Page last edited Sun Oct 14 09:29:32 UTC 2007.
