Suggestions for Breastfeeding and Caring for Twins:

It is difficult to put all the good tips in just a short post.  I would
second Linda Smith's recommendation of Karen Gromada's book, "Mothering
Multiples."  It has a wealth of good, practical advice.  Twin Services,
P.O. Box 10066, Berkeley, CA 94709 Phone (510)524-0863, Fax (510)524-0894,
web site
http://www.parentsplace.com/    has some good materials for parents and for
professionals who work with families of twins, including "Your Twins' First
Year: A Survival Kit for New and Expectant Parents."

As Linda said, having one or two other mothers of twins with a similar
parenting philosophy to talk with is invaluable.  Do not count on finding
this in the local "Mother of Twins" group.  Most of those seem to attract
the behavior modification, train your child to sleep on their own crowd.
LLL leaders may know of other mothers of twins in the area who have or are
currently breastfeeding and support more of an atachment mode of parenting.


I find that the biggest challenge for the women I see, many of whom are in
their 30's and successful career women, is allowing others to help them and
giving up some of the control that has helped them get where they are in
the work world.  It is very distressing to them when their previously
carefully regulated lives feel out of control.  The sense of incompetence,
exhaustion, and disorganization that comes with this new role as mother of
twin infants is very uncomfortable to these capable women who have been so
in charge of their lives up until this point.  It really helps to talk with
others feeling the same feelings at the same time.  No matter how much they
have read ahead of time, they are not prepared for this, and they have a
lot of difficulty accepting help.  They have always been the givers and
think they will manage fine all by themselves. It's a lot easier to send
away extra help than to find it when they are over their heads.

Anne Altshuler, RN, MS, IBCLC and LLL Leader in Madison, WI