I've posted on this subject before and have always received many personal,
very supportive replies. I have 22 month old triplets who nursed for 13,
15, and 16 months. They were born at 33 weeks and I started pumping within
an hour of my last son's birth. They were born vaginally at 1644, 1735, and
1814 on 17 December 1998 at 33+2 weeks. I built up a great supply through
pumping and feeding at the breast. I started putting them to breast on the
second day of their life. The first day I couldn't manage to get out of bed
to get to the NICU. Once they came home at 2, 2, and 3 weeks I started
breastfeeding them on demand. When they were 6 weeks old, I was exhausted
to the core and never, ever could get a break from feeding. My supply was
dropping and I was starting to think 6 weeks might just be good enough.
Then another triplet Mom started talking about putting the babies on a
schedule and how that helped her so much, so I tried it. I started feeding
the babies every 3 hours. I fed the hungriest baby first, then the other 2,
and, yes, often, I'd wake them up to feed. I sometimes tandem nursed, but
usually fed separately, so it took about 1 1/2 hours to feed them all, then
I would get an 1 1/2 break from feeding them. This was a life saver to know
that I would not be feeding for a full hour and a half. They also started
sleeping longer at night, and I was getting some solid blocks of sleep and
felt like a new person. My supply went up, my energy level went up, and the
babies were growing and thriving, and needing a supplemental bottle about
once a day. Breastfeeding triplets was never perfect, and as Wendy Jordan
mentioned, breastfeeding multiple infants is more exhausting than nursing
just one.
I know very few triplet moms who breastfeed more than a few months, and I've
met only one mom who is into Dr. Sears and the attachment parenting
philosophies vs. scheduling. The triplet mom who was into attachment
parenting could afford a good deal of help, including a night nurse who she
paid $17/hour to help with night feedings and everything else that needed to
be done at night. Most of us are on our own shortly after bringing the
babies home from the NICU, and could not hire extensive help. Nursing
multiples is a challenge and one that most moms don't think they can pull
off. It's so sad as these are the babies and families who could benefit the
most (preemies and the HIGH cost of formula). I believe that when working
with mothers of twins or more, many of our basic research and understanding
of breastfeeding must be relaxed to meet the needs of multiple infants.
Perhaps demand feeding will not work well, breastfeed anyway! Maybe you
won't have enough milk to meet 100% of the demand every day, breastfeed
anyway! Breastfeed as long as much as you can for as long as you can, the
babies will benefit!
Anne Nans, RN, IBCLC
Fredericksburg, VA
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