Choosing to Bottle Feed Twin Babies

I have had 2 sets of twins; fraternal twins and identical twins. Yes, it’s rare but there are other’s out there with 2 sets of twins. Anyhow, I want to talk about feeding twins and I am going to be honest. I chose to bottle feed my first set of twins. I didn’t deliberate over the choice and I did not have guilty feelings about it either. Even when in hospital I was ready for any pro breast-feeding nurses dare they query my decision? I just did not want to breast feed. I did not have any of the maternal feelings toward breast feeding them; I just did not feel that way.

In fact , I was all set to pop them off to nursery and return to work. Oh how little did I know! As soon as they arrived my whole world changed for the better and there wasn’t any way on this earth I was turning them over to any other person to care for them.

My fraternal twins were my first offspring and the incontrovertible fact that there would be two of them likely helped me to dismiss the whole breast feeding choice before I had even had chance to consider it. I had no clue about babies having never had one before, let alone two, and I’d never ever emptied a nappy. I believe my circumstances at the time made me think rather more practically before they arrived and I felt that bottle feeding my twins would be the most reasonable option.

I had a C-Section with my first twins and was in fairly bad shape in hospital. I had lost a large amount of blood and for the first couple of days I could not get up or manage to do much feeding at all so that the bottle feeding just took place and that was that.

At home, I fed on demand and my boy guzzled each hour and half for weeks and my girl was of course feeding as well but more like 2-3 hourly. It was a truly busy time. To keep twins on a similar feeding schedule is so significant although it was truly difficult with my first twins I need to say.

Five years later, the second set of twins arrive only this time monochorionic diamniotic twin girls. I felt differently this time about the entire pregnancy though the option to breast feed was moderately taken out of my hands.

The girls needed to be delivered early at 35 weeks and were fed thru a nasal tube in SCBU. The C-Section was not so bad (so we thought) and I was up and about swiftly and expressing milk for them to supplement in between the early baby formula they were being given in SCBU. This seemed to work well as I could express at home and bring it in until our family got sick. Both my husband and I and our eldest twins came down with the Nori Virus probably picked up at the hospital and we weren’t able to visit the girls. This was a bizarre time having babies in hospital and not at home but not to be able to visit was even weirder.

We were so sick that expressing milk wasn’t high on the list of priorities and we were not sure if it was safe in any case. No sooner had we recovered from the illness we were able to visit again and the girls were strong enough to be allowed home.

No sooner had the girls arrived home and filled up the empty moses baskets that had been waiting beside our bed, I became terribly sick and was rushed back in to hospital; remaining bits of placenta and been left in me and had caused an infection. So there I was laid up in hospital (on the labour ward of all places) on a drip being fed intravenous antibiotics whilst my babies were at home with my eldest twins being looked after by my elders with my poor hubby running between home and the labour ward. What a difficult time that was.

I believe the choice to bottle feed or breast feed especially when it comes to twins isn’t simply a matter of which milk is the best start for your twins it’s more about what is the best for the private circumstances you find yourselves in.

Twins can have a habit of arriving early and they might need additional help and a stay in a neonatal or dedicated care baby unit; feeding twins is relentless regardless of what you choose and you'll need some aid. Many girls successfully breast feed their twins and a big hat’s off to them but it's not always possible or always the best decision.

First and most important, a mummy needs to look after herself so she'll do the best job in looking after her babies. My children always come first, everything I do is with their best interests at heart but I know to do the best job I can I have to be fit and happy too.

Mother of Two Sets of Twins shares her experiences of being pregnant with twins and parenting twins.

categories: Feeding Twins,Bottle Feeding Twins,Breastfeeding twins