Expecting twins in 2020?

[Passionfruit20]

Is anyone else expecting twins (or more!) in 2020? I just found out I am. They’ll be our first. Technically due in April, although reality means probably March. Would love to share with other mums in the same situation as I’m now reading a whole new set of baby books and articles!

@ummusomebody the babies will be taking absolutely everything. My girls were 5lb 5 and 6lb 3 so still a good size x

@ChampooPapi thank you!! 😘 xx

@Ummusomebody @Wishing56 thank you 😘 xx

@LittleMiss7 🥰 don't sweat it honestly, and just don't scrutinize yourself now or post birth. During that time so much weight drops off but it doesn't happen before your eyes, the less you look and worry the better. Then like 6 months after they are born you'll try some trousers you haven't worn for like 2 years or something and the things just fit! It's great. Then you can start some exercise or training to tighten up or drop another dress size, or simply just to feel better. To be totally honest exercise to me is mostly about my mental health and the physical benefits are almost secondary.

Let your body do it's amazing thing for now and the foreseeable, you'll be missioning around before you know it with a double buggy dropping the pounds so enjoy this time ☺️

@ChampooPapi completely agree with you on the exercising front. I usually love to run. I find it a great release of all negative energy and feel so much better after, but I've not been able to do any running at all since about week 7 as I get so breathless now, I feel lightheaded which obviously isn't ideal! 🙈 Since I've stopped running, that's where I've noticed the change in my body and things wobbling more than they did before 😂 like you said though, the weight will drop off again once the twins arrive 😊 xx

@LittleMiss7 I’ve gained 7 pounds so far however I had t gained anything until 5 weeks so that’s all just been during that period, reckon I am gonna gain a lot during this pregnancy. Been too scared to do any of my old exercise routines.

Currently 18+3 and feel that the babies are really low still. Also felling a pressure on my groin area. Is this normal or should they really have moved up by now? X

Morning ladies,

Just wanted to update: I had a scan yesterday at 8 weeks and the babies were both measuring 8+0 and had good heartbeats!! I was SO relieved! They are still currently in the same sac which obviously worries me a lot but I just have to trust that I'm in good hands and everything will be okay. My 12 week scan is scheduled for 19th June (so 3 weeks tomorrow) and I'm just praying I get to that date safely as that's when I found out there was no longer a heartbeat last time.

Hope everyone is doing okay! Sorry I'm not at that stage yet @Piglet11 so I can't help. Hope someone else comes along soon with some advice x

Great news @MilsCookie everything crossed for next scan! 😘

@Piglet11maybe mention to the midwife? I'm 28 weeks and they've never felt low really x

@MilsCookie ahh that's such good news and I'd imagine a huge weight off your shoulders too ❤️ the 12wk scan will be here before you know it! X

@MilsCookie are you going to have the Harmony test do you think? You get that at ten + weeks but it is about 400 pounds so not exactly cheap!

@MilsCookie and once the babies are 8 weeks you know your chances go up to having them both are like so much better now then a week or two ago lovely. 8 weeks is a huge landmark for twin pregnancies especially, I looked into all of this as also had the scan at 8 weeks when I thought something was amiss. I looked at alot of miscarriage charts and vanishing twin sydrome, and espe the vanishing twin situation is from 8 weeks still really really rare. And your up to like 95 percent now for your chances of taking them home. By ten weeks it's 97 percent and by 12 98 and then by 15 weeks it's 99 percent and that statistic stays the same until birth.

So you really can relax so much now, especially as you are healthy and you look after yourself well. You improve your chances even more. You are having these babies, it it happening now 🌈🌈💖💖

That’s lovely news @Milscookie. What a relief that must have been for you 🥰.

@Beth804 I have my 20 week scan in just over two weeks so will mention it then if they don’t mention it to me. The feeling isn’t so bad today and they are wriggling away so feeling slightly better about it.

How is everyone else getting on?

Thank you everyone!! And thank you for the reassurance @ChampooPapi. I guess I'm just so so anxious about cord entanglement and TTTS I know MCMA twins do survive but they have so many potential dangers facing them!! I just feel so worried but I know I'll be getting regular scans so hopefully they'd pick up any problems early enough.

I haven't decided about the harmony test yet... is it something you can get done at the usual local hospital or is it in private places? I think I probably wouldn't have bothered if this was just a singleton pregnancy but with twins I'm more likely to get it done... I think I just need to do some research!!

@Milscookie this is a great thread that pretty much covers all the information you'd need. Some really well informed posters on it and it's not very long to have a read through. Most private hospitals have been re deployed during covid so are not currently offering the test. Some hospitals still are and do it cheaper as they only do the test and not a scan. Though the scan is not important as you get that done at your 12 week appointment anyway.

Ultrasound direct is probably your best bet currently and you would also be able to find out the sex as well. Most people have it before their combined NHS screening so between 10-11 weeks.

The NHS will only give it to your for free if your chances are 1/150 or lower for any of the three anomonlies.

Just remember that if you have the nipt/harmony/Iona/panorama that you still need to have the screening with the NHS as although you can discount the results from the 3 abnormalities they screen for, the nipt superseeds their results, you need to have the PAP A and your hgc levels checked which are done in combination.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/pregnancy/3886190-NIPT-would-you-pay

Thank you @ChampooPapi - I just had a good read. I've looked on the ultrasound direct website and it's £400 where I am. Is there any reason why it would be better to have it before the 12 week scan? (mine is actually when I'm 11+2) I still feel like I don't understand the difference between what this test does and what the NHS test does. Does it just detect more possible abnormalities? I am tempted but it's a lot of money!

@MilsCookie the NHS test is basically a good guess. The nipt actually tests the DNA from your baby giving it a far more accurate result. The NHS test is 79 percent accurate for down sydrome. The nipt is 99 percent. The NHS test just uses your age and nucal results then puts that into a computer and it guestimates a number.

It really depends on whether you would continue with the pregnancy if your baby had down sydrome. The other two things they screen for, Edwards and Pataus are kind of irrelevant to the test to be honest as they are not conditions that are compatible with life.

That is why the Harmony/nipt has had some contravercy. Sally Philipps did a program on the test called 'a world without down sydrome'. Her son has down sydrome.

The NHS were actually supposed to be adopting the nipt anyway and rolling it out soon instead, so it was going to replace the combined screening anyway. But imagine now with covid that won't happen for a few years yet.

The reason people have it early is so they can terminate earlier then 20 weeks. Harsh to write it down like that but that is a big reason. Especially for women like us who have had miscarriages. The NHS screenings can come back in 24 hours like mine did, or they can take weeks. Then by the time you have amio or CVS to confirm the condition your very far along to go through a tfmr (termination for medical reasons).

It is very very personal and is bloody expensive. I've never had it before with my other two girls but I could absolutely not risk having a baby with a cromasonal condition, it would impact on my other children so much. My partners uncle had down sydrome and like everything even that condition is on a spectrum.

Sally Philipps son is very high functioning and my uncle in law was very low functioning with a multitude of other health conditions that are associated with down sydrome.

It's very rare but with statistics like 79% on the NHS test, I knew mine would be low risk (they were) because of my age skewing the results. So I could still either go on to find out the baby had one of the three conditions at the 20 week scan, or end up actually having a baby with down sydrome.

It was too much of a risk for me personally with a twin pregnancy especially.

I hope that makes it's clearer. I think alot of women think the NHS test is diagnostic which it totally is not. I could guess just by looking at a lot of women and still have a similar accuracy.

It's the 20 week scan that will usually pick up what the combined screening has missed. And that is just too late for a lot of women to consider having to then have further testing perhaps leading to termination

@MilsCookie you could still have the nipt at 12/13 weeks (you can actually have it any time after 10 weeks).

Because I can tell you now knowing your age that your combined screenings are going to be like 1/20000 for Edwards and Pataus and probably between 1/5000 or 1/10000 for down sydrome.

Unless they find a very large nucal fold which is highly unlikely.

So I've basically given you the results which would be low risk. As I said anything, and I mean for all three syndromes, over 1/150 are deemed to be low risk.

They are not testing your blood for the babies dna to get these results, they are doing a more complicated version of what I just did admittedly, but you are NOT being tested from your blood to see if your baby has those syndromes. They are not doing that. They take blood to test your iron, your PAP a and hgc. Those can also be indicators of certain issues regarding the babies development but they can also not be.

Nearly all babies born with down sydrome now are to families who either decided to continue, or who had abs no idea because their NHS screening told them 1/10000 risk or often higher.

Most women with low results like 1/20 or whatever, actually are false positives. And end up having amio or CVS and the baby has no condition. Or they don't and continue with the pregnancy and the baby is born with no condition at all.

The harmony, Iona and nipt, illiminate those false positives as well as pretty much confirming your baby at that stage does not have those three conditions.

But yes, it should be like fifty quid shouldn't it! The expence is a bit eye watering

@ChampooPapi wow, thank you SO much for explaining it all so clearly! See this is why I LOVE mumsnet! Couldn't find anything online that explained it as clearly as you just did. It's definitely made me think I'd want to do it. And especially with a twin pregnancy. My only question now with twins is, how do they know which twin it is, if high risk results come back? Or do they then have to do further testing? When they do the NIPT is it literally just a blood test? Or do they do other things? I'm going to look into it but the price is SO annoying!!! 🙈

@MilsCookie don't worry at all my mum was a nurse and biology teacher and my brother is a molecular cell biologist so we are very into science and finding things out in our family.

The panorama test is the only one that will identify which twin has/or doesn't have a condition and it wasn't available in the south west unfortunately.

The harmony/nipt/Iona/nifty will tell you that ONE of them has something (or doesn't). But not which one so you would have to go on to have CVS, or amio, but as yours share a placenta anyway and the CVS is taking dna from the placenta you'd be having the same treatment whether you knew which twin or not.

I had the harmony and my results were 1/10,000 for all three conditions. If either twin was effected it would have been reflected in the results. So if one had it I would have got like a 1/2 or something and then would have had to have amio or CVS (which the NHS do then for free obviously as the harmony test is passed onto your hospital).

It's only a blood test, they scan to check your pregnancy is at the right weeks and babies are ok obviously but don't do any measurements, unless you pay even more for that too. But it's unessicary as you'll be all meausred at your 12 week scan.

Once your results are in you print them off for your maternity book, or you can just tell them the results.

You might be able to find a panorama test in your area but I think it's less important for identicals and the harmony will no doubt give you a very favourable result.

They either give you a positive or negative, not like the NHS.

You'll get Either 1/10000, or a 1/2 1/1, so basically positive for a condition.

Nothing in-between like the NHS test

@MilsCookie you normally get one result for both babies.
Personally as it was so much money i decided to have the 12week scan and blood test by the NHS and then if my results came back high then I would have looked into having the NIPT. My results came back with a low chance so i didnt go onto having the NIPT.

But the NHS test gives you a different result for each baby based on nucal fold so I found the harmony so much clearer.

My NHS said 1/1200 for one two for down sydrome

And 1/7000 for the other twin.

Which is basically complete crap.

As my harmony put them at 99.9 percent risk of NOT having down sydrome. Which is written as 1/10,000 (that is the highest and only result they give as a negative)

The panorama will give you each individual twins results as it separates the twins dna. But mine would have still be 1/10000 had I had that instead of the harmony.

You either get a positive result or a negative one. No in-between from soft markers that are wrong alot of the time. The false negatives and the false positives with the NHS tests are much higher which cause so much worry or cause no worry because you think your low risk only to get to 20 weeks and something is discovered then at that scan.

But it is very expensive and most women will definitely go on to have healthy a typical babies whether they get tested or not with either test.

It depends on how certain you need to be going forward through your pregnancy for your own choices later on or just for your own anxiety throughout the pregnancy.

I've know of two 'low risk' pregnancies when I was living in Bristol where there NHS test came back as very low risk and they both went on the have babies with down sydrome.

But that is obviously very rare, it is not unheard of

Thank you so much @ChampooPapi - you've certainly answered all my questions about it and given me lots to think about!! At the moment my gut is telling me to wait for the results from the NHS scan (purely because it's so expensive)... if it was cheaper it'd be a no brainer!!

@MilsCookie it's eyewateringly expensive that is for sure! You've made a completely informed decision now as you've had all your queries answered on the whole process so definitely feel confident moving forward. Your young and healthy and the soft markers as well as the anomonly screening at 20 weeks really would pick something up if there was an issue with either twin.

I mean mine came back low risk so if I hadn't done the test and saved my money the outcome would have been the same anyway. But my anxiety just needed to do it for my own personal sanity.

You've made the right call in your situation, and you get lots of extra scans too, even more then me as yours are identical. There's on at 16 weeks too for you 💜