Twin Birth Experiences

[LaurenAnneP92]

I am currently 17 weeks pregnant with twins and I am really desperate to find some other twin mums to share their birth stories, positive please. I don’t want to be naive but I am painfully aware of the risks, I would love to hear some of the positives.

I Would really prefer not to have an epidural even though it’s what is recommended because I can’t stand the thought of being immobile. Has anyone else had a twin vaginal birth without epidural?

I have had a vaginal birth before with my son 6 years ago and would love to have another.

my ultimate goal is that everyone gets through the birth safe and healthy but these would be my preferences. If it has to go differently for medical reasons, I will do what has to be done I.e. epidural, Caesarean etc.

Congratulations. I had an induced vaginal birth with no epidural. This was also my second pregnancy (and actually a better experience than the singleton). I just had gas and air. I did go into it agreeing that anything changed and they look at epidural/c-section very quickly.
I asked for minimal staff, no doctors unless needed and to be as mobile as possible. In the end I couldn't be mobile as they needed to up the monitoring but they did have me sat upright rather than layed down. I only saw the Dr between births as they scaned dt2.
I went in with an open mind, I'd like a vb with minimal medical input however I wanted to leave hospital with healthy babies and mum (I was in itu after dc1 birth). So my priority was we do what's best for dt.
All in I had a 7 hour labour (I'd been in slow labour for about 3 weeks) , I'd been in hospital for quite a while beforehand but the actual birth was ok. They told me that I'd have a rest between births but I didn't and I went from minimal pain to horrendous pain and 18 minutes later dt2 arrived. That last 18 minutes was probably the only time I wished I'd had the epidural but once over I was glad I hadn't as I was up and around and home the next day.

I had assisted birth in theatre and my beautiful babies were 7lb and 6lbs. They are an absolute joy, congratulations and enjoy them both !

Congratualtions! I had my identical twins at 35 weeks in February via c section. Like you we were both happy to be led by the medical team regarding these decisions. I wanted to try a natural delivery if possible but was happy to do whatever was the safest delivery method for the girls. They were both growh restricted throughout the pregnancy (<1st centile) and we ended up booked in for a section for 36 weeks as they weren't sure they would have the reserves to handle an induction then labour ( and it was my first pregnancy so I had no idea how I would handle labour!). We ended up getting admitted from our 35 week scan as the blood flow to twin 1 was abnormal and her growth had tailed off on the last couple of scans. We had a c section the next day. Our girls were 4lb 11 and 4lb 12 and required a little bit of feeding and temperature support for a couple of days but they were alloeed to stay with me on the ward and we were all home after a week. I had a few post op complications but I wouldn't change our delivery method as the surgical team and neonatal team were all brilliant and made it a very stress free delivery after a stressful pregnancy full of complications! Both girls are doing brilliantly at 5 weeks now and both weighing nearly 8lb.

i didn’t care how I gave birth as long as the girls were okay.

I requested to try vaginal birth and agreed to epidural. Went into labour at 36+5. Epidural made me faint whilst they were testing it and my girls were distressed by this. Ended in an emergency c-section. Everything went perfectly, the theatre staff were amazing and so calm.

The pain was horrendous for a few days but actually I felt better about the emergency c-section that the vaginal birth I had with my son.

Vaginal birth after spontaneous labour at 31+3 weeks. No intervention needed and I had a failed epidural.
4 weeks in NICU and then home when they would have been 35 weeks gestation. Birth weights were 3lb10 and 3lb12 - first pregnancy and labour (and last!!)

Vaginal birth after spontaneous labour ar 36+4 (was due to be induced at 37 weeks but they were impatient). Had gas & air only and was second pregnancy. They were 5lb and 5lb 2oz and didn't need to go into NCU and we went home 2 days later. Good luck OP