Double Trouble: Twins and How to Survive Them. Emma Mahony

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СКАЧАТЬ nutrient-dense food, think of half an avocado rather than extra butter on your bread.

       ‘Remember, you need these nutrients for yourself as well as the baby in the post-natal stage. To get through those first six months, you need to build up your reserves. You are going to lose a lot of iron, zinc and essential fats in the last trimester and from the birth and the early months of breastfeeding.

       ‘Food-wise, nuts – tree nuts such as almonds and walnuts – seeds, pulses and oily fish are all good. Zinc is found in any protein-rich food, like red meat.

       ‘In the third trimester, zinc and essential fats are particularly important for growth. If there’s not enough in the diet the baby will take it from the mother’s reserves (a lot of postnatal depression may be linked in part to the mother’s depletion of zinc and essential fatty acids). Good nutrients also help your own energy levels and stabilize your moods after birth. Often eczema in the mother while breastfeeding is triggered by not having enough essential fats. If you take linseed flax oil, it works very quickly to improve your condition.

       ‘Two other key nutrients are calcium-rich foods and antioxidant-rich foods, found in fruit and veg. We tend to take a sledgehammer approach to calcium and just drink milk (yoghurt is also good because it is predigested by bacteria), but there are swathes of people who are lactose intolerant. Many people don’t realize that there is plenty of calcium and magnesium in green, leafy veg such as spinach, cabbage, pumpkin seeds, pine nuts and sunflower seeds. Raisins and dried apricots are also unexpected sources of calcium, magnesium, potassium and iron – all needed for bone health.

       ‘Finally, I would strongly advise every mother pregnant with multiples to take a specially formulated prenatal supplement all through the pregnancy. You can buy them at any chemist, and it’s never too late to start.’

       Here is what four triplet (heroine) mothers ate during pregnancy to produce three healthy babies.

       ‘I ate a lot of toast and Vegemite (my favourite), apples and cheese and lots of red meat (which I found pretty horrible!).’

      Susi Gorbey, mother of Abigail, Lucille and Manon, went to 38 weeks with her triplets (‘Don’t let the doctors bully you into delivering early’)

       ‘I’m a vegetarian, and ate organic food as much as possible during my pregnancy. I ate plenty of fresh foods, but nausea restricted me a lot. I wanted to eat “comfort food”—pies, quiches, potatos, savoury carbohydrates. I avoided caffeine, alcohol, aspartame/phenylalanine as found in fizzy drinks.’

      Tracy Alter, mother of Jake, Luke and Daniel

       ‘I didn’t change much of my diet during pregnancy as we eat a fairly healthy diet in any event. The only change was not drinking alcohol at all and starting every morning with a good breakfast that included flax seed – which I swear kept me extremely well throughout my pregnancy. I didn’t really have a favourite food and didn’t have any cravings.’

      Marion Davies, mother of Thomas, Helen and Emma

       ‘I was either sick or nauseous throughout my entire pregnancy, so ate a lot of whatever didn’t come back up. I steered clear of complex carbohydrates. What I liked best was ice cubes!’

      Alex Salmon, mother of Freddy, Lulu and Alexander

      Exercise for the permanently tired

      There is a lot to be said for keeping fit in pregnancy. Not running around sort of fit, but keeping moving sort of fit, as a preparation for labour. Walking, swimming and yoga are all thoroughly recommended in both the early and late stages, and can be done right up to the day of delivery.

      Swimming is the best exercise for twin mothers towards the end, particularly if you are a member of a clean health club (pregnancy makes you notice the plasters on the bottom of the public pool). I loved the feeling of weightlessness as I took to the water, cupping my stomach and the babies as I slowly made my way up and down the pool. I even managed to escape buying a maternity swimming costume by wearing a black Lycra size 20 until the very end. Swimming is also good because it keeps your temperature stable in the water, increases blood flow and urine output, and reduces swelling. At the same time, it puts less stress on other parts of your body, particularly the uterus.

      Yoga is also wonderful if you can find a pre-natal class locally, or a yoga teacher who can show you a few simple exercises to do. Pre-natal classes, as opposed to normal classes, also give you the opportunity to sit around chatting to other pregnant women while the yoga teacher reminds you to do your pelvic floor exercises.

      Love your pelvic floor

      The pelvic floor muscles are what your expanding babies are sitting on. They sit like a hammock supporting your internal organs, and withstand a lot of pressure during pregnancy. Regardless of whether you have elected for a Caesarean and are hoping to escape ‘honeymoon sweet’ (a myth, I’m afraid), you need to learn to love your pelvic floor muscles. It is pregnancy, not birth, that stretches them, so nobody escapes. If you don’t learn to love them now, you may never set foot on a trampoline again, or survive a coughing fit without a dash to the loo. Take those Bangkok girls with ping-pong balls as your role models and ‘squeeeeze!’ (in the words of the heroine of Allison Pearson’s hilarious novel I Don’t Know How She Does It ⁷)

      Once a yoga teacher has helped you locate your pelvic floor, find a regular place to do your exercises, such as when sitting at the traffic lights. The only place I could remember was in the bath. Lying on my back, I would do the hold for 10 seconds, release for 10 seconds, hold for 9 seconds, release for 9 seconds, until the water went cold. Those without a yoga teacher can practise by sitting on the loo and holding back their pee intermittently.

      Working out

      As I have never set foot in a gym, I can’t give any sensible advice on what exercises can and can’t be done in later pregnancy. However, the actress Jane Seymour writes quite comprehensively about her workout regime before the birth of her twin boys Kris and Johnny. Without wishing to pour cold water on her efforts, her impressive gym activity is tempered by the fact that she did go into labour at 34 weeks after the onset of pre-eclampsia. (Her disappointment about being wheeled in for an emergency Caesarean, however, was offset by the surgeon’s flattering remarks as she lay under the knife. In her book Two at a Time the surgeon is quoted as saying, ‘Look at those abdominal muscles – good work, Jane. They look like the muscles of a 20-year-old.’⁸ The following excerpt from her punishing schedule carries a warning that you may well feel tired just reading it:

       ‘My workout stayed essentially the same between 28 weeks and 34 weeks with some important exceptions because of the irritable uterus episode I’d had at 28 weeks. I no longer warmed up on either the recumbent bike or the Stairmaster. I also used stretchy exercise bands instead of the weight machine, and I did exercises seated or lying down instead of standing. Gently, I kept up with my abdominal exercises, even though I had grown so large, although Dr Ross pointed out that if I had experienced pre-term labour, СКАЧАТЬ