Customer Reviews

Having Twins: A Parent's Guide to Pregnancy, Birth and Early Childhood

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

This book, should be required reading for a multiple-birth pregnancy. Noble assumes you're looking for detailed information, and provides it. Unfortunately, having an unexpected multiple-birth pregnancy IS scary, and I don't think a chapter on death is out of place--particularly now that women are having higher-order multiples. I was actually grateful to read about other women who weren't especially thrilled to find out they were having twins. (Of course, many women who were absolutely thrilled were also included in the book.) It's a hard happiness for many women. Finding out other people had difficulty accepting the news helped me a great deal.

Noble's view on sea vegetables might seem a little weird, especially for people who've never traveled. Surprise--people are finding out that the "traditional" American diet may not be the healthiest, especially for a pregnant woman. I live in a rural area and wasn't able to get sea vegetables, but if you're sick of milk and cottage cheese, you'll try anything. The calcium requirements for a mother carrying multiples are amazing. She also is a great person to read if you feel pressured into "not eating" during pregnancy for fear of gaining too much weight. The health of the babies is what's paramount, and she does a great job of supporting women. Doctors in America are much more likely to do c-sections for multiples --that's a proven fact, and it's also been proven that might not be neccessary. The more informed you are, the better your choices. Get this book if you only buy one multiple-birth book--it's the most complete.

My midwife advised us to get this book as soon as we found out we were expecting twins. I am a Lactation Consultant and already had it as a reference for clients.
I found the information to be extremly truthful and very informative. I too followed their advice on nutrition as also advised by my midwife. It was difficult to consume so many calories and protein but I did it for the health of my babies and myself.
While reading this book I found out why I was experiencing all these different things with my body that I never experienced with my other 4 births and pregnancies. I also was very prepared and informed of all the things to expect with multiples.
Between my midwife and this book I felt totally confident and positive about my pregnancy and birth. Without it I would have been in the dark and frightened!
I ended up delivering vaginally and totally natural at 39 weeks and 4 days. My b/g twins weighed 7lbs 14oz and 7lbs 15 oz. I never had any problems the whole pregnacy (absolutely NO BEDREST) and my babies stayed with me the whole time and went home with me. If I did not have such great resources the outcome may have not turned out so great!

I bought this book back in 1991 when it was just published, and I was pregnant with twins. My twins are now 9 years old, and I have not seen a book since then that is as informative and emotionally holistic as Elizabeth Noble's HAVING TWINS. I followed her advice for weight gain and protein intake as well as whatever other advice I was able to accomodate. My twins were born 1 week AFTER their due date and 7 lbs 2oz and 7 lbs 4 oz. I guess you could say it really worked!

I felt the chapter on the death of a twin was completely appropriate. I appreciated being able to talk about that possibility and make plans for "what if." The chapter is tastefully written with deep respect for the reader. I found it extremely moving and useful.

I am just about to buy this book and give it to a friend of mine who is pregnant with triplets - super twins. If I had been able to find a better book, I would have bought it, but the writing and advice in Elizabeth Noble's book is as good today as it was 9 years ago when I bought it for myself.

I bought this book when I found out I was having twins in 1997. The chapter on Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome scared me to death and I skipped over the information on loss and planning after the loss. I SHOULDN'T HAVE! We lost our twins to TTTS on 7-4-97 and I then went back to the chapters I had skipped and found very useful information that I wished I had taken the time to read before our loss. Not all parents have successful twin or higher pregnancies and the media tends to 'glamorize' the successful ones while the rest of us are left to wonder if we made the right decisions or not. More needs to be available to the parents who are struggling daily to save their babies. Not all multiple pregnancies end with two or more healthy beautiful babies to bring home. But these babies do matter and do affect many, many lives and are NEVER forgotten by the families that lose them.

A refreshingly non-bubbly book full of detailed medical and statistical information, but is it all nonsense?

The references to astrology are the first tip (pg 9, 10, 36.) The inability to distinguish correlation from causality is the next (castor oil preventing hare lip, pg 183.) But the worst is the entire chapter on fetal memories, recovered with the aid of hypnotic or primal therapy. The author remembers knowing about, while still a fetus, not just the death of her sibling, but the death of her theoretical twin, whose existence is unsupported by any other evidence.

On top of this are the obvious errors: 15,000 diaper changes in the first year (pg 55), mislabeled graphs which contradict the text (pg 90), presenting only a study contradicted by the bulk of the medical literature on the miscarriage rates from amniocentesis (pg 166).

Given the new age nonsense, the lack of understanding of what constitutes scientific proof, and the fact that the book is dated (revised in 1991, there is no mention of the triple screen AFP test), it is impossible to evaluate the author's much more reasonable sounding advice on topics like diet.

I was startled by those who rated this book so poorly simply because it covered the negative aspects of carrying twins. For those of you who had a rosy experience carrying your twins, BRAVO! However, in many instances, there are terrible things that can occur, and do. That is why a multiple gestation is considered such high risk. If you are not interested in reading the negative aspects, skip those parts. I lost my twins at 36 weeks and searched for any and all information I could find. I was thankful to have a resource so complete. This book could leave out all of that information, but how helpful would that be? The author would be negligent in not reporting all the facts, regardless of whether or not it's what I want to hear. It offers a comprehensive, useful tool for those facing a twin pregnancy.

I found this book to be extremely informative on the many issues a twin mom-to-be needs to be aware of that a singleton mom-to-be does not. There were areas that did not apply to my pregnancy, but to have the information available was invaluable.

As someone who had an "event free" pregnancy... all the way until my 28th week, I was able to focus until that point on all the exciting things happening (and not happening) to my body and those of my babies. When the unexpected and unexplained happened during a routine ultrasound, the discovery that one of my twins had died, I found the section on the loss of one twin to be an invaluable resource. When I had subsequent bedrest, preterm labor, tocolytics, then was able to deliver both babies naturally 8 weeks later, this book continued to keep me informed. This book was something I could turn to during each of the very different stages of my pregnancy. I strongly recommend it. And I attest the health of my surviving twin to the teamwork between myself, my OB and my perinatologist. I would not have been such an educated patient, able to participate in my and my surviving daughters care, without this book.

As a mom of triplets and a childbirth educator who works with multiples I suggest this book for all expected parents. The simple truth is that most OBs don't tell couples what they really need to know. I think couples need to be able to make informed choices and to do that they need ALL information. They need information about nutrition, lifestyle, bedrest, preterm labor and the drugs that are used to try and stop it, and about how important state of mind is in every pregnancy. I believe Elizabeth has one of the most honest books about multiple pregnancy. She has good information about nutrition and the work Dr. Brewer has done in the field. She gives accurate informtion on the side effects of most preterm labor drugs and she gives moms the information they need to make it to term. It isn't bad to question authority it is healthy. Be pro-active in your pregnancy your babies will thank you.

When I was having twins, this book was my bible. I loved it! I found it to be very informative. While I had a wonderful obstetrician in attendance, it was nice to have something to fill in the blanks when he was not available. Being inquisitive by nature, this book fit the bill. I read it from cover to cover. I found it to have a common sense approach to the process of having twins.

I tended to follow its advice and found it very reassuring. Its dietary recommendations were sound. I followed them, as they were not inconsistent with my doctor's own. I felt good throughout my pregnancy and was very happy to be having twins. When they were born, my son weighed in at 7 lbs. 2 oz., and my daughter weighed in at 6 lbs. 6 oz.

The book really gives one all the information about having twins that one could ever want: the good, the bad, and the ugly. It is a reality based book. Were my daughter having twins, I would give her a copy of this book.

The best book available for keeping a positive attitude about having and delivering full-term healthy babies. I credit the excellent health of my twin girl (8 pounds 3 ounces) and twin boy (8 pounds 13 ounces) to the information in this book.

The "In Utero" chapter was not my style; it was a bit "out there". Overall, this book was what helped me feel that I could achieve my goal - to have two beautiful, healthy babies (and no C-section!).