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Premature birth

Connect with others and find premature birth support.

Helping friends - one twin stillborn, one in NICU

4 replies

JumpJockey · 16/06/2017 16:53

I don't want to put too many details but we have friends in a very bad place. Their twins weren't growing, mum became ill, and they found that one twin had died. The other has been delivered at 26 weeks and very very tiny.

How can we support them best - both in mourning with them for the baby that died, and in celebrating the one that has been born while acknowledging that the baby will have a very tough start to life? I won't want to send a 'Congratulations' card at the same time as a 'Sorry you have lost your baby' card. I wasn't sure where to post this but Premature birth seems the best place.

OP posts:
acatcalledjohn · 16/06/2017 17:01

Hi Jump, I didn't want to read and run.

I don't have experience of your exact situation, but when a friend ended up in a coma for a few weeks I offered practical things to the family: Food ready portioned (curry, risotto, pasta, anything nutritious they can put in the microwave and not worry about). Perhaps offer to do food shopping or to clean their house for them.

Practical and a sounding board are the two best things you can be.

AWhistlingWoman · 18/06/2017 18:56

Hi Jump,

I am so sorry for your friend's loss. I also had very premature twins, they both survived birth but one of our babies later died in the NICU.

You sound like a really lovely, caring friend. It is hard to give too much advice as everyone reacts very differently to situations like this but this is what I found helpful at the time.

I know you say you don't want to send a 'congratulations' and a 'sorry your baby died' card at the same time and, whilst I wouldn't put them in the same envelope, I wouldn't shy away entirely from sending both. I found it very strange when I received congratulations cards with no acknowledgement at all of my daughter who had died or of how precarious her sister's situation was. Maybe one of these would fit the bill www.redbubble.com/shop/greeting-cards+loss+of+a+twin as well as a congratulations card. It really is a time when I think I experienced every emotion going.

As john says practical help is always wonderful, cooking, cleaning and so on. Having a baby in intensive care and grieving may make it hard to keep up with all the day-to-day household stuff. Particularly if they have other children too.

This sounds strange but one of my friends used to bring me heaps of magazines! All the celebrity ones and home improvement ones, any sort of distracting stuff that doesn't require too much engagement. I loved them and looked forward to each new delivery!

If her surviving twin looks likely to be in for a long NICU stay (my survivor was in hospital for four months after we lost her sister and she had a pretty easy time of things) then gifts of snacks and nice hand creams might be appreciated. You have to wash your hands A LOT and they get cracked and painful. If your friend chooses to express milk for her baby it can be hard work and make you very hungry. DVD box set to watch if she is getting up at night to express?

And, of course, just to be a listening ear. Your friends might want to talk, or they might not, or maybe not quite yet. There are a lot of lovely Facebook groups, both for premature babies and parents who have lost a baby from a multiple birth, which might be a source of support either now or later on? It can bring up emotions, months and years down the line. Personally I found their first birthday very hard as it was so different from what I had dreamed of and imagined.

But I think a caring friend, who will both celebrate and mourn with you, is really the very best support you can have at times like this Flowers

JumpJockey · 19/06/2017 12:33

Thanks for writing WW, I'm sorry about the loss of your baby. Your post is really helpful. We've gone for a congratulations card with a message inside about how sorry we are about the other baby. We've seen some photos and the baby that survived is very, very little. Mum has had a chance to spend some time with the baby and she's getting some colostrum which they can tube feed so getting off to as good a start as possible. She's still recovering from the C section so haven't seen her in person yet - thanks so much for your suggestions.

OP posts:
AWhistlingWoman · 23/06/2017 18:25

Hope it helped a little bit Jump. Like I said, it is so hard to really give advice as everyone reacts differently. I would have really valued your acknowledgement of my other baby and I hope your friend feels the same way.

Lovely to hear that you have seen photographs and I hope their little one is doing well. My survivor was 1lb 7, it was a bit of a bumpy road but she made it home eventually.

Wonderful that your friend has managed to spend some time with her baby and that she is getting colostrum. Hope her recovery continues to go well, can't imagine having to recover from a C section in the midst of all this too.

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