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National Multiple Birth Awareness Month

April 7th, 2009 by · 10 Comments

I learned yesterday (via twitter! because I don’t spend enough time on the internet!) that NOMOTC has declared April 2009 the first ever National Multiple Birth Awareness Month. With multiple birth rates rising, I think this is a positive step. Before I got pregnant with multiples, I thought things like:

* Great! One pregnancy, two babies!
* They’ll be best friends!
* Is secret twin language real? And why does no one ever talk about secret triplet language?
* You’re already breastfeeding one, just pop the other on.

Here’s what I didn’t know about the above:

* Yes it will be one pregnancy but it will be a high-risk pregnancy: higher miscarriage rates, higher mortality rates, higher maternal mortality rates, 50% prematurity rate for twins, higher incidence of post-partum depression, higher incidence of divorce… on and on.
* The fighting starts early!
* You will wish you had a dollar for every time someone asked you about twin language.
* Breastfeeding rates for multiples are very low.

What are you going to do to celebrate National Multiple Birth Awareness Month?

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10 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Melody // Apr 7, 2009 at 1:08 pm

    I’m going to celebrate my twins 1st birthday on April 17. I think it’s the perfect way to celebrate National Multiple Birth Awareness Month! :)

  • 2 Mommy, Esq. // Apr 7, 2009 at 1:31 pm

    How perfect – since I’m a triplet and our birthday is this month. Laura – no triplet language because a group is a different dynamic than a pair. I was nervous about having twins because I like the 2 against 1 dynamic of triplets – sometimes you are a group, sometimes a pair and sometimes an individual fighting for yourself.

    I’m going to work on celebrating by not comparing my kids and their ever-growing developments – to each other or to other babies the same age. How long will that promise last?!

  • 3 Joanna // Apr 7, 2009 at 1:44 pm

    I’ll be celebrating my boys’ 2nd birthday on the 19th! Car cakes, here we come.

  • 4 Quadmama // Apr 7, 2009 at 1:50 pm

    I had no idea about National Multiple Birth Awareness Month. Great idea. Maybe it will enlighten people who think it’s so easy having multiples… you know, because of all the free stuff we get for having twins or more (did my sarcasm come across in this post?)

  • 5 Giovanna // Apr 7, 2009 at 4:02 pm

    Who knew there was such a day? Is drinking every night a good way to celebrate? After they are asleep of course :)

  • 6 Shannon // Apr 7, 2009 at 8:38 pm

    Too true! I was actually dumb enough to pray for triplets (qualified with if my body could carry them) while we were undergoing fertility treatments. DUH, now I look back and think how misinformed. After picking up and reading a multiples book from the early 80′s I plan on blogging a lot about how far we have come in combating the misinformation and how far we have to go. One lady in the book was told her twins would be dumb because they had to share a brain!!! LOL

  • 7 nonlineargirl // Apr 8, 2009 at 9:18 pm

    I am going to try not to go into labor this month.

  • 8 Rachel // Apr 9, 2009 at 9:06 am

    Melody and Joanna – my twins celebrate their first birthday on the 16th!

    As for National Multiple Birth Awareness Month, I am going to celebrate by knowing forevermore that a National Multiple Birth Awareness Month even existed.

  • 9 kerstin // Apr 9, 2009 at 11:16 am

    i´m going to wear a bikini in my house and remove all mirrors and pretend i look good.

  • 10 Rebecca // Apr 9, 2009 at 11:47 am

    I’m going to try not to smack people who tell me that it must be so much easier to have two two year olds than just one—-they can just entertain each other all day long! Can you tell that having two year olds is kicking my ass?

    Seriously, Happy Multiple Birth Awareness Month to all those mommies to twins, triplets, quads and more out there!

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