Diet and Health FAQ

Tagged As: Twin Pregnancy

Question:
Does anyone know of a site or a book that explains a twin pregnancy week by week. I found a couple of web sites that have a week by week calender for a singleton but not for twins. I also have the book Your Pregnancy Week by Week which is also really informative, but somethings just don't transfer to twin. For instance, I'm in week 23 and just started to feel the babies, but I'm also as big as someone 8 months with one. I've been having backaches and ligament stretching since week 12 and they don't even cover that until week 24-28. Any help would be greatly appreciated by both me and my husband (he reads all the books too!)

Answer:
The book TWINS! Pregnancy, Birth and The First Year of Life by Connie L. Agnew, M.D., Alan H. Klein, M.D., and Jill Alison Ganon, offers month by month information for a twin pregnancy. Even though I purchased the book, I would recommend using the library for this one. I also have a week by week pregnancy book that I purchased for an earlier pregnancy. Instead of looking up the number of weeks, I would look up my uterus measurement. For example 30 cm correlated to 30 weeks in the book. This at least gave me an idea what my body was going through. I hated this book (did you, Kathleen? Is that why you said get it from the library?), but yes, it does have the month by month (though it STOPS at 36 weeks as though *nobody* ever went past, instead of over half of moms of twins -- grrrr). It also has useful-looking lists of contacts, URLs, etc., in the back. You could photocopy those :) Barbara Luke has a book on twin pregnancy coming out very soon too. I have no idea if it's going to be any good or not. I would recommend Mothering Multiples by Karen Kerkhoff Gromada (new edition) and Multiple Blessings by Betty Rothbart. Also Mothering Twins, Linda Albi et al. (All these darned names sound alike!) I was at the bookstore today looking for something on picky eaters. I noticed this book and wrote it down to tell you! I also found a book called When You Are Expecting Twins, Triplets or Quads. It also had this information. But, I just checked the TOC on both. I can't recommend anything. Yes, I suggested the library because I didn't think it was worth the $16.00 dollars. I liked the month by month information and I agree the appendix has some good information. There is also a labor and delivery section. I was a little upset the authors stopped at 36 weeks myself. My twins were born at 38 1/2 weeks vaginally. I did not like the roundtable discussions at all. The authors really could have done a better job. I think they just cranked out a quick book for a quick buck. Actually, if I were to make a recommendation, I would also suggest Mothering Twins and Having Twins by Elizabeth Noble, even though it is a bit dated.