This issue is really close to my heart
For those of you that don't know - our twins were born at 31 weeks
My son had a 10% and my daughter a 20%. There wern't enough ICU beds where i was aFrances Perry House, so my son got taken to Royal Children's Hospital and was separated from his sister and me for 5 days.
Having two children in two different hospitals was definately an eye opener. I found that nurses in ICU at RCH very encouraging about bonding with my son. They encouraged me to kangaroo cuddle him, and hold his hand as much as possible. Even though he was the sickest, I got to hold him so much more because of their attitude. He was so much more dependant on machines - but this didn't matter, as they just moved him and the machines together.
My daugther was not as dependent on machines and was in special care, yet it wasn't until 4 days after her birth that i got to hold her. It was almost like it was a hassle at the start for them to get her out of the isolette. It wasn't until I said that we still haven't held her, that they made the effort. Becuase of what i was experiencing at the other hospital, I pushed for more contact, and that is what made the difference. I had to even push for the two of them to be put together for some 'twin time'
As for bonding - i bonded with my babes , but bonded with my son quicker b/c of the contact.
Alan, i would love to partake in your booklet. Just let me know what you are after, and I can send it through. the AMBA have recently put out a brochure for midwives on mutiple births- perhaps something like that could be linked together.
I would definately like to stress to midwives how important- even though sometimes inconvient, skin to skin and contact is. Even being able to take their temp or gavage feed them, gives you some input. Also, for the midwives to help out with expressing and feeding more. It is the only thing you can do for your babes, and so important. Also, b/feeding prems has its own challenges and as a new parent, trying to b/f a babe is hard enough-let alone a prem- so more assistance would be great.
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