Preterm labor with Twins

Preterm labor is something you never want, but with twins it can be very dangerous. Due to having two little bodies inside you instead of one, the babies development is very important and the stages of development is different than with a singleton. I went into preterm labor at 28 weeks, since this was my first pregnancy I wasn't sure if it was preterm labor or not but I knew something didn't feel right. Women you know your body better than anyone else, no matter what anyone tells you if you feel something isn't right or could be wrong go to the doctors immediately. I went to the hospital and they immediately took me to labor and delivery for observation. The put a heart monitor for each baby on my belly and also a contraction monitor. After a few hours, they noticed that my contractions were not slowly and I was starting to dilate. Wanting to stop the contractions before I dilated anymore I was put on Magnesium Sulfate in a large dose at first then a slower dose for 24 hours. Let me just tell you I would never wish this medication on anyone, not even my worst enemy. I felt like my whole body was alight. I was also put on antibiotics in case I would have to deliver, which burned like hell fire going through my arm. Lastly, I was given two corticosteroid shots to help accelerate the lung and brain development  of the babies. You are given one shot and the given the other shot 12 hours later. It is a lot for you body to process when you are given mag sulfate, antibiotics, fluids and a corticosterioid shot all at the same time. Lets just say I had myself a breakdown in front of the nurses. I was later given a catheter for urine collection, again I say would not wish this on my worst enemy considering I had to get the catheter place twice in the same day. Thankfully by the end of the second day being there I was able to get the catheter removed and was able to come off the Magnesium Sulfate. I was only at the hospital for three days, I was still having contractions but the were minor and were not coming every 3-5 mins. I was thankful that I did not go into preterm labor again and was able to make it to my scheduled c-section date. I was very thankful that I had a very easy twin pregnancy compared to other mothers and was very blessed to get two very healthy girls. If you would like to learn more about Preterm Labor follow the link below. Thank you for reading!

Preterm Labor

TTTS. What does this mean??

What is TTTS? TTTS is Twin to Twin Transfer Syndrome. It is a disease that only affects the Identical twin pregnancies, which are the Mono/Mono and Mono/Di pregnancies because it is a disease that affects the placenta. This disease affects the nutrition that each baby gets. This disease affects the blood vessels that are connected to the umbilical cords. This disease can affect your babies at anytime during the pregnancy. It is something that can be very dangerous. One twin ends up getting (stealing) more of the nutrients so that the other twin ends up getting only a little. This can cause the twins to become very different in size and this problem will have to be fixed very quickly. To fix this problem they will have to do surgery. If this happens early in the pregnancy you can have laser surgery to seal off the connection between the blood vessels so that they are no longer sharing. Also in some cases you will have to deliver the babies preterm so no further damage can be done. To learn more about this disease and to join in the awareness of this terrible disease follow the link below.

http://www.tttsfoundation.org/

Thank you for reading!

The different types of Twins

Hey everyone! Alright lets start of with Twins. Many people don't know that there are different types of twins you can have until you are pregnant. Plus it can be very irritating for twin mothers to be asked several questions and wish that everyone was educated on twins. So I will gladly tell you the differences and hopefully help everyone out. 

• Mo/Mo Twins - Monochorionic/Monochorionic Twins. This means that there is one amniotic sac and one placenta. This is a VERY dangerous pregnancy because the twins are sharing everything. They can easily become tangled and have a higher risk of TTTS.
• Mo/Di Twins - Monochorionic/Diamniotic Twins. This is when there is two amniotic sacs but only one placenta. This is less dangerous because the twins do not have the risk of becoming entangled but still have the risk of TTTS because they are sharing the source of all nutrition, the placenta.
• Di/Di Twins - Diamniotic/Diamniotic. This means that there are two sacs and two placentas. This is the low risk pregnancy compared to the other two. They are sharing absolutely nothing as far as nutrition and have there own area to grow. 

Now when a woman has Identical Twins that means that she either had a Mono/Mono or Mono/Di pregnancy. This means that she only released one egg and that one egg was fertilized and then split. If a woman had Fraternal Twins this means that she had two eggs released and each egg was fertilized separately. This means that Identical twins can only be boys or girls; Fraternal twins can be boys, girls or one of each. 

I hope this helps clear up some confusion on twins.

Thanks for reading!