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Multiple Pregnancy 101

Everything You Need to Know from Morning Sickness to Bed Rest

By Kelly Burgess

Doubly blessed, but doubly stressed. That's the reaction of many prospective parents when they discover they're expecting more than one child. And it's correct in more ways than one. While all babies are their own blessing, carrying more than one child places a much greater stress on a woman's body than a singleton pregnancy. Because of this, she should be aware of some of the common complications of a multiple pregnancy and how to avoid them.

It's so exciting to see that line on the pregnancy test telling you that, yes, you're going to be a parent! Those little tests, so easy to buy over the counter, work by detecting the presence of a hormone called human chorionic gonadotropin, or HCG, in a woman's body. Often referred to as "the pregnancy hormone," it's responsible for many of the early, unpleasant side effects of pregnancy, such as morning sickness. And the more HCG in the body, the more severe the symptoms.

Dr. Anthony Odibo, a physician in the OB/GYN department of the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, says severe morning sickness is often the first indication of a possible multiple pregnancy. By the same token, other common early pregnancy complications, such as gestational diabetes, anemia, pre-eclampsia and the risk of miscarriage, also increase in multiple pregnancies.

However, Dr. Odibo says that many of these complications can be avoided or minimized by paying close attention to nutrition. "Babies are parasites; they take what they need from the mom even to the detriment of the mom," Dr. Odibo says. "The mother needs to supplement to meet her baby's needs and to keep her from becoming depleted as well."

But, as Dr. Elizabeth Pector points out, this may be easier said than done. When she was pregnant with her twins, she had little appetite and struggled to meet her nutritional needs. She agrees that much of the latest research on multiple pregnancies supports an increased focus on maternal nutrition, but worries about the contradiction of telling a woman who is extremely nauseated because of her pregnancy to eat 3,000 calories a day.

Want to see more?

• Check out our Article Library.
• Start your very own twin diary here!
• Keep Those Babies in There: Avoiding Premature Delivery with Twins
• The Home Stretch: Surviving the Last Trimester with Twins
• Eating for Three (or More): The Special Nutritional Needs of Moms Carrying Multiples
• Talk about it!

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