Expecting Twins or Multiples Forum

Updated on December 07, 2010
E.G. asks from Iowa City, IA
5 answers

I have ten month old twins. When I was pregnant I had to switch from a nurse-midwife to an ob because of twins. They kept calling me high risk and telling me that they would be born early. I did my own research and found the Brewers Diet. I followed it and had the babies at 39 1/2 weeks and my boy was over 8 lbs. and my girl was over 7 lbs. Dr. Brewer's wife had 9 lbs. twins! It upsets me when I hear about twins being early and small, because many of them don't have to be. Dr. Brewer found that with good nutrition, high protein (120-160g/day), high calorie (3500-4000/day) many women were able to carry to term and have higher weight twins. (Dr. Brewer started his research to prevent toxemia/preeclampsia and had amazing results. The diet can also be adapted for pregnant Diabetics). No one at our hospital ever heard about this diet. I wish more doctors were taught about Dr. Brewer's findings. Does anyone know of any existing forums that relate to pregnancy nutrition or multiple pregnancies so I can share my positive twin pregnancy experience with other expectant mothers? I haven't been able to find anything like that and I don't have the computer skills to start something like that.

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So What Happened?

Thank you for the websites and for all your responses. After reading all the posts I realize that I was sounding preachy and anti-medical. I needed to hear that, thank you. My intention is to be an encouragement to others, not to tell them what worked for me WILL work for them. I have edited my question, hopefully for the better. To clarify, I in no way condone avoiding medical care during any pregnancy. Prenatals with a doctor or midwife are very important for many reasons, but also to monitor for complications that can develop despite good nutrition.
To answer Cash's question, I did not develop any complications. I had a lot of contractions during third trimester and would drink two large glasses of water (as directed by Dr. Luke in the book mentioned in the post below) and that alleviated them. In my opinion, I did have a long labor/difficult delivery: 24 hours at home, 15 more at hospital with 7.5 hours between babies followed by a non-spontaneous removal of the placentas.
I agree with the posts that say every pregnancy is different and that no one can predict the results. I personally feel that my pregnancy would have had different results had I not followed the Diet. After all, my doctor and almost every medical source I read said to eat 1000+ fewer calories than the Brewer's Diet suggests. That seems significant to me, but who knows what would have happened.

More Answers

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B.B.

answers from Dallas on

I had perfect nutrition before and during my pregnancy and had an extremely complicated, difficult, high-risk pregnancy. You have to remember, that your experience with twins will be different, from everyone else. What works for you won't work, for everyone. Good nutrition, is a must in pregnancy. However, I think of woman who do truly need OB care and avoiding it, because some lady on a forum says all you need is nutrition. I'm not meaning to be harsh here, i just think you need to be careful.

5 moms found this helpful
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C.A.

answers from Atlanta on

Geez....wish I had known this information 8 years ago when I had my twins!!! I carried to 36 weeks and mine weighed 6 lbs and 5lbs 10 ounces so not to shabby although I know best to bake them longer.......did you have any complications during the pregnancy such as pre-term labor? Like I said I wish I would have known. There is a website I go to at times called www.dailystrength.com you can join their forum for multiples amoung many many other things such as depression, greiving, child molestation you got an ailment ~name it and I bet it is there. It puts you in contact with many others who are going through the same thing or have been through it. It's a great site.

1 mom found this helpful
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M.G.

answers from Chicago on

Good for you! My twins also combined for over 16 pounds. I'm sure your nutrition helped a lot, but I don't think it's that easy for all moms of multiples. If it were simply an issue of diet, more and more multiples would be born on time. As you probably know, there are many more complications that can arise unrelated to diet that cause preterm birth. A multiple pregnancy is one of the highest risks out there, and I think that to simply attribute full term to a good nutrition is minimizing other issues out there. For the record, I didn't have the best diet while pregnant and went on to have a 38 week pregnancy and 8lbs 7oz baby and a 7lbs 13 oz baby. So, my babies went full term and grew so large in spite of my diet.

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H.M.

answers from Omaha on

I'd go over to the multiples board on BBC or Baby Center. Their boards, and there are hundreds of them relating to being pregnant, pre conception and motherhood etc, have thousands of members. I'm sure people would love to talk to you over there! There is everything from crunchy people to tie me down to a bed and sedate me... wake me when it's over people.

it's just babycenter.com

BUT don't leave yourself liable. Don't give people medical information... You should only ever say my experience was this. don't preech this as science or yours... well cause it's not and you aren't a doctor. Just thought I'd put that out there.

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B.W.

answers from Seattle on

Congratulations! Yeah, I had the book "When You are Expecting Twins, Triplets or Quads" which is an excellent book about high-order multiple pregnancies. The author advocates a high calorie nutritious diet as well. I did everything they suggested and my twins came early at 29 weeks because my water broke on Baby A at 25 weeks. This was after a complicated pregnancy due to loss of a triplet early on. You just never know. I work at a hospital and babies born to drug addicts come late and healthy while I see heartbroken moms and dads who do everything right have children early, in some cases very early, and in some cases lose their baby or babies.

Yes, there are a great number of twin forums/websites. Twinstuff is a great one. I agree with the previous poster and would caution about coming across as lecturing.

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