by Deborah Percy

Created on: October 08, 2010   Last Updated: October 11, 2010

Breast feeding can be challenging for any new mum.  Problems are often related to the baby not being correctly latched on; a lack of help and support for the new mum struggling to cope with everything at home or mum simply not being prepared for how demanding a new born baby can be. Mums are often taken by surprise when they find newborn babies can want feeding far more often than just every three hours.  Expectant mothers preparing to breast-feed newborn twins should be prepared for these and additional issues.  Challenges related to breastfeeding twins are not just the physical manoeuvres required to feed two and the demand on mum to produce twice as much milk but also coping with babies who may need additional hospital care possibly following a caesarean birth.

Twins are usually born at around 37 weeks gestation, which is considered to be full term for twins, obviously many twins are born before this and can be described as premature with the additional issues associated with this. By contrast, full term singletons are expected at 40 weeks. Those final few weeks are when babies build up their fat reserves. In the first day or so of birth a full term baby can survive on little or nothing and may mostly sleep, babies usually lose weight in the first few days after birth and it could be two as much as two weeks later when they are back up to their birth weight. Premature babies have not had the luxury of storing fat. They need to be fed often from birth.

It is possible to exclusively breast feed twins from birth, mothers of twins should also be reassured that help from formula milk in the first days will not prevent exclusive breast feeding from taking over within a couple of weeks.

Many because they are born earlier a larger proportion of twins than singletons will spend sometime on a Special Care Baby Unit. It will very much depend on the support of the staff and hospital as to how breast feeding is facilitated in hospital. Many units are excellent, with staff that know breast milk and closeness to the mother is one of the best things for any baby.

Jaundice is very common among breast fed babies, this is no problem for those who are  full term, laying with skin exposed to sunlight is recommended. For premature babies, however, Jaundice can be very serious, the babies will go floppy and be unable to feed. Special light therapy treatment is required, a hospital admission of two weeks for Jaundice among premature babies is not uncommon.

Finding positions to spend hours feeding newborn twins is certainly a problem, this can be further complicated by the fact that many multiple births are delivered by c-section.   While the babies are so young and unable to hold their own heads it is best to use cushions, have additional helping hands near by or feed them at separate times.

Breast feeding newborn twins is challenging, more so than looking after just one baby.  There are all the problems of looking after a newborn baby and additional challenges on top.  The babies will need feeding at least every three hours and possibly more frequently, so it is important that other adults are able to step in for a few weeks to do all the other routine domestic chores so that mum has the energy to look after the babies and her body is able to make the milk.

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