Unexpected Twins

My Aunt Margie had twins, oh around 1985, and did not know she was having twins until after the first one was born. Strangely enough, the very same thing happened to me. I was having a home birth in 2004 with two midwives, and found out after the first was born that there was a second baby. I'd like to know if anyone else had unexpected twins and if so, did you have them at home or in the hospital? Thank you for your time.

 

No, I knew in advance since I had proper prenatal care.

But this was how a friend of mine was born about 40 years ago--of course, prenatal care was different then.

 

You need an "other" answer.

We found out about our twins 3 weeks before they were born (6 weeks before they were due). But, that is because they are adopted. Their birthmom had known she was having twins for some time, and picked us as their parents in week 34 of her pregnancy. Talk about a whirlwind getting ready! We were semi-ready for one baby on short notice, so we had to quickly get ready for two.

As far as unknown twins, DH has twin sisters less than a year younger than him (361 days, to be exact). His mom didn't know she was having twins and his grandma loves to tell the story of his dad coming out of the door at the hospital holding two tiny babies (just over 4 lbs each), looking VERY pale and quite in shock. :faint: :laughing:

 

My SIL is Twin B and they did not know she was there until have A was delivered. My Grandmother found out she was having twins I believe 2 weeks before she delivered. We knew we were having twins from 8 weeks on.

 

I found out we were having twins at our 20 week scan which was really exciting. My DH is a twin and my MIL only found out at 36weeks via xray then delivered a week later. A huge shock for her. My step father has twin sisters as well. When his mum was pregnant they had only just moved from Holland and couldn't speak english. Evidentally the doctor tried to tell her prior to the birth but she didn't understand. Needless to say it was a huge shock. The family still talks about it too this day.

 

I knew at 8 weeks, but a really close friend of mine didn't find out until 20 or so weeks.

 

Oh birth story time?!?!

Mom found out about 4 hours before we were born at 41.4 weeks. After about 40 hours of labour when they sent her down for an x-ray to prep for a c-section. They found 2 and we were in position so the doctor told her to "do it herself". It was 1974.

 

I knew at 5 weeks... early ultrasound due to high beta numbers!!

 

That is hysterical! :rofl:

 

It's hard not to know about it when our medical technologies are so advanced here...

We found out at 8 weeks with ultra sound. I was shocked and husby and family were so happy... The funny thing was that.. We talked about having baby.. Them i timed my ovulation days. We tried for a boy but we got both boy and girl with the first try hehe. We have no twin history in both sides of families

 

My OB did my first u/s at 8 weeks and missed seeing the second baby. I found out at 17 weeks after my test results were high on the quad screen. My grandma didn't "know" my mom and aunt were going to be two until they were born (1953), except really she did. She insisted to her doctor that there were two in there and he insisted there was one until they were born.

 

I knew about twins at 8 weeks, we did IVF so we were hoping both embryos we put in will make it. We were very happy and scared when we found out.

However I am a twin and my mom had no clue, everything started as a breech vaginal birth, my sister was twin A and she was breech, unfortunately because they didn't know we were twins, her chin got stuck on mine - I was vertex, so they had to do an emergency C-Section. Unfortunately, my sister died because of this whole ordeal and my mom and I were lucky to survive. I don't mean to depress anyone with our story, but that's how it happened with our birth.

 

I found mine at a 6.5 week ultrasound. My grandma was a twin born in the 1920's so of course they didn't know ahead of time. She says her mom had one first , then said something doesn't feel right and turned around and pushed out the second. They were born early at home during a snowstorm. Apparently they were so small the doc said do your best and hope they make it because there wasn't much else to do. When she was weighed for the first time at 2 weeks old, her weight was about 4lbs 10 oz. Its amazing she made it!

 

we knew both times (lost a set of ID twins before having W and W) at 5 weeks. We did IVF so we knew early on. This is why its SOOOOOO important now a days to have proper prenatal care. Homebirth, wow if you want to I said ROCK IT OUT I am not that brave but I just hope and pray that all pregnant women will seek prenatal care at the very least. Sorry if that upsets some people but its how I feel. Why take any chances with the blessing you have been given.

 

Question for the original poster, even with a home birth, I assume you received prenatal care, how did they not pick up on the fact that it was twins? Did you measure any further along then usual? did you feel movement in more than one place? Obviously knowing that I was carrying twins, I was aware of each one's distinct movement, additionally, even thought my girls were not that much larger than your, I was huge and even random strangers "knew" I was having twins?

So you never suspected it at all?


I am not asking to be rude, just curious, hope my tone was not offensive

 

Nikki I was thinking the same thing. My twins were born at 34 weeks both 4 lbs each and you should have seen me. At 33 weeks I went to the mall and strangers were asking if I was having twins.

 

I didnt look that huge at all. My neighbor did not believe I was carrying twins untill she saw my kids lol. How big you look and how much movement you feel are really depended on babies positions. Mine were over 4 lbs at birth 32w1d. pre-pregnant weight and body type are big factors how you look when pregnant and post pregnant as well.

I know many moms even twin moms got back to/under prepreg weight after birth.

 

I saw two different doctors for my prenatal care--one private very high tech, I had an ultrasound at my first appointment so we knew from 5 weeks it was twins. The other in the public clinic I had to go to to recieve my maternity benefits. I didn't say anything to him at my first appointment there at 12 weeks--he measured my fundal height and said, there's either two in there or your dates are off. So I also wonder--in this day and age how could you not know?

 

First off, I'd like to point out that being under the care of midwives doesn't mean you didn't have proper prenatal care. I know that in some States it's different, but in Canada, midwives are completely interchangeable with OBs - the only thing they aren't able to do is surgical births. Otherwise, they can order all the same prenatal tests, screenings & diagnostic procedures as an OB. They see you once a month at first, then every two weeks, then every week till babe is born, just like an OB (and usually spend at least a minimum of 30 minutes with you per appointment). They discuss & acknowledge the importance of your emotional & mental health to your prenatal care & don't focus solely on the physical. I do know there are many OBs out there who also do this, but generally speaking, this is more a component of the midwifery model of care than the obstetrical model. And let's face it, there are a surprising number of women these days who go a whole pregnancy without ever knowing they're expecting (I mean, TLC has a show about it!), so while it's definitely rare, it's not impossible, even with adequate & appropriate prenatal care, for something like this to be missed.

Second, homebirths attended by a trained caregiver have statistically equal outcomes for babe as hospital births & significantly improved outcomes for moms. So it's not a crazy, risky, fringe thing to do. It's actually quite safe. I think the only person who can decide whether homebirth is right for them or not is the mom facing the choice.

 

We found out at 6.5 wks, but we suspected it at 4 wks with my high hormone levels. I only gained 28 lbs, most of which was baby and placenta, my kids were 7.2 lbs and 6.4 lbs. And I was HUGE! I'm amazed someone can go a whole pregnancy without finding out they are having twins in this day and age

 

WOW you totally misunderstood me. I never once said seeing a midwife was not prenatal care. I firmly believe in BOTH OB's and Midwives. Some of my dear friends have midwives vr's OB's. For me it just so happened that I had been going to the same OBGYN for YEARS and love love loved her so I chose an OB. I am saying that you need to see SOMEONE. OB or midwife. I know that midwives are very well trained and very caring people. And as far as homebirths, I never once said or meant to imply it was crazy, risky or a fringe thing to do. I said I was not brave enough. Not meaing to imply that it was not as safe as a hospital birth but more to say I WANT THE DRUGS LOL. But we need to be honest here in this day and age it would be rare for a midwife or an ob to miss a second baby if the mom is getting the right sort of care. To miss it all together would seem to me like its possible there was very little care being given. And again if that is someones choice then it is there choice I just believe that we have these resources for a reason be it midwife or ob and we should use them. Now this could very well come alot from the place of my infertility struggle and my miscarriage that I feel like its reckless to leave any of this up to chance but I am not saying by choosing a homebirth or a midwife you are being reckless. I think both of those if done with a well trained midwife are very reasonable choices just not a choice for me. What is not reasonable is to have no care by either a midwife or ob and expect everything to just "turn out". And I am not saying that is what the original poster did either I was just wondering how in this age of bloodwork and ultrasounds and fetal heart monitoring etc that with monthly checks it would be easy to miss a second baby thats all. I am so sorry if you took it the wrong way because that is not how I meant it.

 

My apologies too. You're right - I did misunderstand you. Thank you for clarifying. I do agree it would be extremely rare to miss a twin pregnancy with regular prenatal care, but I don't think it's impossible. It just seems like the underlying tone in this thread is that the OP must have done something wrong, or had inadequate care, to have had a surprise twin birth. With the limited information that has been shared, we really can't know what happened at all. I admit, I tend to get defensive when I feel like midwifery is been maligned - I feel like there's a lot of misinformation out there about it & feel strongly about sharing as much solid info about this (IMO really great) option for pregnancy & birth as possible.

 

I totally understand girl no worries. I have heard so many wonderful things about this practice of midwives here where I live that had I not been in a highrisk situation, infertility + recent m/c + higher maternal weight + twins (and the fact that I was in LOVE with my sweet ob) I would very much have at the least taken a meeting with them. I think there is something special about most midwives. and from what I have been told from friends who choose midwives vrs ob my ob had alot of the same special things going for her as a midwife but with that I guess little bit of more comfort I took in her further education and experiance with highrisk multiples. but she was (is) also so caring and loving when it came to any questions I had, she was with me through my m/c and in fact she called me weekly after my m/c for 3 months encouraging me to seek a support system, talking with me about her m/c etc in what I felt was WAY beyond what most doctors would do. Well glad we are straight now never meant to upset anyone

 

I could clearly see the two "peaks" in my belly, so there was no doubt about having 2. However, I didn't find out until 22 weeks. At around 12 weeks, the midwife questioned me on dates because she said I was too big. But an ultrasound at around 15 weeks saw only one baby.

 

I found out at 11 weeks. I had been spotting and went to a clinic where I did the blood test to see if I was having a miscarriage (my DR was on holidays and I didn't have an OB yet) When I told my Dr about the spotting he suggested getting an ultrasound - I sometimes wonder if he suspected something due to high hormone levels. And that's when we were told there were 2...

 

My mom found out at about 7 months that she was expecting twins because she was gaining too much weight. The doctor had actually sent her home with a diet book at one point during her pregnancy. She had an x-ray. This seems to be very common 40 some years ago.

 

I have always found out that I was pregnant very very early so I have always had early ultrasounds and so far the head count has been correct. The last few weeks I have had people taking bets that I am having twins again because of my size - I have had 4 ultrasounds so if there is a baby B it will be a shock!! Can you guys imagine the trouble I would have if we had a surprise baby and me being on pain meds from the c section and Travis's name choices LOL!!!