Sunday, January 13, 2013

Preparing for Twins: Getting the News

          It was in mid-August.  I had been attending a professional summer workshop for teachers and walked through the front door of our home just north of Toronto that afternoon.  There it was.  A hand written sign: Welcome Home Daddy!  My reaction was to yell G-d’s name in vain several times!  I was going to be a father and was both surprised and extremely excited!  But the news was only going to become bigger....at least in numbers. 

Perhaps, looking back, I shouldn't have been so surprised.  In a story I have repeated often over the years, while we were engaged we attended a dinner at a retreat which had entertainers coming by to each table.  My wife was having her fortune told by a tarot card reader and was asked the question, “Do you have twins in your family?”  I was listening and chuckled at this until my wife said, “Yes.  Why?”  We were then told that she would eventually have twin boys.  I still found the whole thing ridiculous, but I am not as skeptical today.  The tarot card reader was wrong about the boys, because we later found out that we were having a boy and a girl.
            There are quite a few things to consider while preparing for your twins, and the most important one is on the woman’s shoulders – keeping the fetus’ healthy.  Twins have much higher rate of being born early which can lead to birth defects, and also a higher rate of miscarriage.  So eating healthy, getting lots of rest, getting to all those medical appointments, taking the battery of tests throughout the pregnancy relies heavily on your wife and/or partner.  But dads can help significantly by attending as many appointments and ultrasounds as possible, being supportive both in words and actions, and doing as much as you can to get ready for your twins when they arrive.  My own experiences along with some others may help the dads reading this better understanding of how to help their wife and/or partner get through the sometimes challenging twins pregnancy.  And quite a bit of this applies to the moms too!
My next few posts will deal specifically with the issues we dealt with during the pregnancy as we prepared for our twins arrival.

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