New government bill is so unfair for Multiples

[fifihall]

Hi Everyone,

I am a bit of a non-regular visitor to this message forum being a working mum to twins, an elder child and baby no 4 on the way!! But when I do get a chance to read I always find great advice and a great sense of humour! So please humour me now as I climb onto my soap box!!!

Anyway I just wanted to post about TAMBA's (Twins and Multiple Births Association) latest campaign to 'Give our babies the best start in life'. The campaign is trying to get a change to a Government proposal which discriminates against parents of multiples and it highlights the inequality in a new pregnancy grant which will benefit expectant mothers.

The Government?s Health & Social Care Bill 2007 includes the proposal for a £190 grant which will be available to all expectant mums. The Health in Pregnancy Grant will be available to every woman from the 25th week of pregnancy once they have received appropriate health advice from a health professional.

Research shows that good nutrition in multiple birth pregnancies is really important and TAMBA is asking the Government to pay per expectant child rather than per pregnancy as this will help to ensure multiple birth babies have the greatest chance of survival.

Please could you support this campaign by signing up to the online petition at:
www.gopetition.co.uk/petitions/multiple-births-and-the-health-in-pregnancy-grant.html
I t only takes a few seconds to sign up to this online and it is not just open to parents of multiples but everyone so I would urge grandparents, friends and family to all sign up. The more people that highlight this unfairness in this new bill, the more notice the government will take.

You can further support this campaign by writing to your local MP to ask him or her to support a change to the Bill in Parliament. You can find out who your local MP is here on the parliament website:
www.parliament.uk/directories/directories.cfm

More information about TAMBA?s campaign can be found on the TAMBA website at: www.tamba.org.uk/news-and-campaigns.php

Right I will climb off my soapbox now. Thanks everyone for reading. xx

Sorry but I don't understand how this discriminates against multiples. There is only one expectant mother so why do they need additional funding for good nutrition during pregnancy? Hope you can clarify this for me. Thanks

Not a multiple mum, but would have thought that multiple pgs are more expensive than single PGs so an increased grant would level the playing field - as multiple pgs will need more hospital visits, and may well mean prem babies with longer hospital stays, leaving work earlier that you would have liked etc.

Hi Pink Spotty Wellies

To answer your question, compared to singleton pregnancies, multiple birth pregnancies have additional nutritional requirements and consequently there are additional costs to achieving healthy weight gain. Although the Government have acknowledged these additional costs in other legislation, they have failed to recognise them in this particular Bill. The amendment to make this grant paid per expected child will ensure the Bill more closely resembles the eligibility criteria of the Sure Start Maternity Grant and the Healthy Start scheme which are also paid per expected child rather than per pregnancy.

Hope this helps answer your question.

Thanks Fifi. That's interesting. Is the campaign pushing for a supplementary 'per child' payment rather than the full £190 per child? Totalchaos I think this particular grant is aimed at healthy eating particularly, so that all expectant mothers can access healthy food.

Hi Again,

Not sure at this stage about the detail of the specific amount that will be paid. I think the campaign at the moment is just trying to get the principle accepted that it should be paid per expected child rather than per pregnancy.

The actual amount could be then £190 x2 or else £190 plus an additional amount for each additional child (a bit like how child benefit works).

From what I have read about this, the purpose of the grant is to fund the cost of healthy nutition but also to help with some of the other costs in preparing for a new baby. So personally I would argue it should be £190 x2 as you have to buy two or three of everything if you have twins or triplets as well as fund the additional costs of healthy nutrition for your pregnancy!! I suspect the government will probably opt for the child benefit model though as it will cost less!

I got this with my TAMBA mag, but well done for highlighting it here. As Momma said... come join us as and when you can. I have 5 and work and find my sanity on that thread. Oh and one of our motley gorgeous crew has triplets and twins!

Is that £190 per week? Having recently had twins I would think that my weekly food shopping bill was somewhere near that at the end when I was bedridden, eating to get them fattened up in case they came early and out of pure boredom. Thankfully at nearly 7 pounds each I was successful...and have been dieting ever since.