Monoamniotic/monochorionic twins?

[BibiThree]

This is what I'm having (sharing a sac, sharing a placenta) and have read some frightening statistics regarding mortality.

Does anyone have any experience of this? I'd love to hear some positive stories or any experiences really.

Thanks

But Mars, your two are not even ID are they? Don't you have a boy and girl? How could they be Mono anything ? The incompetence and lack of knowledge of these people amazes me!

Bibi

I've only just noticed this thread, so sorry for the late reply. My girls were mono-mono which, although it was picked up at the 12 week scan, nobody thought to mention to me that this made my pregnancy higher risk and I didn't see anyone - not consultant/midwife/sonographer - until 20 weeks. After this I had scans every 3 weeks, which was my hospital's policy for id twins. My consultant came to my 20 week scan and spent ages looking for a membrane until they decided that there wasn't one, but even then I wasn't fully informed of the increased risks.

In a way, I'm quite glad of this - ignorance was most definitely bliss in my case. Although I knew about twin to twin transfusion syndrome, I found it much easier not to investigate and just chose to deal with any problems as and when they arose - and I was lucky and had a trouble-free pregnancy.

But I wanted to also reassure you on the birth side of things...I was told at 23 weeks that I would most definitely HAVE to have a CS because the girls were id. But by 30 weeks they were both head down and stayed that way and my consultant changed his mind. He said that if I wanted to I could try to deliver naturally - but that if he wasn't around, I must make sure that whoever was doing my delivery, must hold on to twin 2 once twin 1 had been born so that she didn't turn, as if she did, then without any fluid left, it would be impossible to turn her back. As things turned out, I didn't go into spontaneous labour so had a CS at 37+4 as my consultant didn't want me to wait any longer.

Hope this is of some help.

Hi,
This is a message for Bibi really.
Would love to know how things turned out (I think I read somewhere that you had the twins), and would love to know what kind of a pregnancy you had.
Found out last week I am expecting mono - mono twins, and although really excited I am aware of all the risks etc.and the intensive nature of the pregnancy. I am 12 weeks.
We already have a 5 yr old and a 3 yr old.
Hope to hear from you or others.
Thanks.

Hi Karma,

I missed all this last year having just had my di-everything twins! A good book to read if reading is your thing is Elizabeth Noble's Twins book. Really clear and non-scary, pro-DIY birth rather than immediate CS, and other nice things like that!

I have a friend who had mono twins, both of whom are now gorgeous 20month olds. They delivered early, but naturally and although they did have TTTS the hosp dealt with it well and everyone stayed healthy.

Anyway, good luck to you - join us on the "D'ya ever" thread - it's about to change name but it always starts with those words! Take care of yourself - eat, drink and rest! Your watchwords for the next 6 months or so! xx

Thanks devondoris. Anyone else out there?

Hi Karma & Bibi
I'm new to the site but also have MCMA twins. I agree that you really need to deal with the consultants on this one, as the midwives tend not to have much experience of it. Apparently there's only 10 of these cases per year in the UK, so it's not suprising! My consultant sent me up to another hospital for a 2nd opinion & it was definitely diagnosed then as they could see the cords were slightly tangled.
I'm now 27 weeks and am having scans twice a week with the consultant. He was initially just going to carry on scanning us every 2-3 weeks, but I showed him some research we'd done which said frequent montioring increased the survival rate (up to about 70%). I don't think he's convinced with the research but said he was happy to increase the monitoring to put our minds at rest. So it pays to question their care programme if you're not happy with it. We're being delivered at 32-33 weeks & they'll go into SCBU. I'll just be glad to see them here safe and sound - it is all quite worrying sometimes, but I try not to let it get to me too much.
xx

this is where we all hide. Bibi pops in from time to time and all is well there. Do come join us. Always some cake there and occasionally we tidy the place for newbies.

Congratulations!

Hi Karma,

Sorry I've not noticed this until now... congratulations!!! Hope you are keeping well. Okay, here goes...

After all the hoo-ha and many scans, another consultant decided there was a dividing membrane and the girls were then classed as di-amniotic mono-chorionic. They still kept a close eye on me, and scanned me fortnightly from 16 weeks.

I had an okay pregnancy and in lots of ways it was easier than with my first dd. I didn't have lots of the aches and pains like carpal tunnel sydrome, the awful indigestion or leaky boobs, no new stretch marks etc. However, I was much bigger much sooner, had blardy awful backache and towards the end (31 weeks onwards) I had to finish work because I couldn't sit, stand or lie comfortably.

At around 32 weeks they noticed one of the girls hadn't grown since the previous scan so I had a course of steroids just in case. I was scanned again at 34 weeks and she still hadn't grown so I was given a section at 35 weeks on the nose. (I was planning an elective anyway after a long, drawn out birth with dd1 ending in an emergency section).

The girls were born weighing 4lb 15oz and 5lb 04oz and didn't need special care. They did have heart murmurs which have now gone. We stayed in hospital for a fortnight though as the girls were too weak to breastfeed, couldn't suck on a bottle and eventually had to be tube-fed as they lost a lot of weight.

They are a strapping pair of six month olds now, (pic on my profile) and an absolute joy!

My main advice would be to take it easy and get everything prepared EARLY just in case. I dread to think what dh would have been like decorating the nursery and buying car-seats on his own!

If you have any other questions or anything, I'm around a lot more now and the "D'ya ever" multiples thread is full of wonderful women who know their twin stuff!

P.S. Strangers on the street WILL inform you ever so kindly that it's going to be SOOOOOOO hard having twins! Tell them to bugger off. It's not that much harder than 1 baby, it all just takes twice as long
Twins are a blessing and a joy!