Triplets & Multiple Births
Finding out you are soon to be a parent is some of the best news you can ever find out, however being told you are going to have triplets or even more babies can be a massive shock for everyone involved! This is called ‘Higher Order Multiples’ or HOM for short, and it’s something that you will find yourself hearing a lot about over the time you have your children!
While having triplets and HOM is rare, around 80-90 sets of triplets are born in Australia every year which makes your chances of having triplets around 1 in 945. For quads it increases to 1 in 17,700 so if you are expecting 4 babies then you should feel even luckier! As soon as you are told you are expecting triplets or HOM you will no doubt be provided with contact details for your state or territories HOM office. Every single state and territory has one and if you aren’t informed of whom to contact then you should either ask or look the details up yourself.
Your local HOM office will assist you with everything you need in order to make your HOM birth a less daunting one than it already is! One such thing they will tell you IMMEADIATELY is to hold off on buying three of every new thing you get! This is obviously the instinctive reaction based on how many babies you are having but your HOM office will tell you what exactly you will need to purchase in order to help look after them correctly.
Some more advice the HOM office will give you will be based on what reactions and assistance to give the children you already have as it can be a big challenge introducing multiple new siblings into your household. Whether this is assistance from you or your partner or from a professional, they will be able to find out what is best for your situation. If it is not you having a HOM birth and a friend, never be negative about the situation to their face. Don’t go around telling them you are glad it’s them and not you as having HOM is an extremely stressful time, and I’m sure you wouldn’t like to hear that sort of comment if it was happening to you!
Always remain positive and reassuring to the person no matter what the situation. You will probably already gather, but the three highest stress points for a new mother comes from tiredness, lack of sleep and a decrease in their social activity. This can obviously be multiplied when you add 3 or more babies to the mix!
You should always try and cope the best you can and always get as much help as you possibly can from your partner and other family members. It won’t be easy no matter how well you think you will be able to cope, so never be afraid to ask for help! With lack of sleep being the biggest factor in all stress, it isn’t uncommon to find yourself constantly cranky from this and taking it out on others. Y
ou should always try your very best to not do this or at least explain to other people what you are going through and they will give you as much slack as they can. You will also find that your partner will no doubt help out a lot more than you think they would, especially when it comes to men getting up in the middle of the night. Statistics show this has increased since 50 years ago, as has male help with a large variety of other tasks.
Finally, HOM make having a baby all the more expensive, so make sure that you are financially prepared to cope with the added costs of having 3 or more babies around. With all this in mind it should make your experience of having a HOM a lot easier on you and the household and create as little stress as possible for your entire family!