Postpartum more intense with twins?

amother

Rose

Sun, Jul 16 2017, 4:41 pm

If you've had twins AND single births, did you find that postpartum was harder with twins? Physically, emotionally, or both? I'm prone to emotional/mental health postpartum issues. What's the best way to prepare ahead of time?

amother

Apricot

Sun, Jul 16 2017, 8:30 pm

For me, the biggest difference is SLEEP! With one baby, you can sleep when the baby sleeps. Nurse laying down and drift off. Take a midday nap. You can't do that with two. One finishes eating and the next one is starting to stir. So consider what you can do to get that sleep: night nurse, babysitter during the day, move in with parents and everyone takes a shift, etc.

amother

Royalblue

Sun, Jul 16 2017, 10:04 pm

Get domestic help! I can't that emphasize enough. I had a nurse for 9 months and should have kept her until they were 3. Twins are not comparable to singles. Was a very difficult period. And they were girls. . I can only imagine what twin boys are like.

amother

Goldenrod

Sun, Jul 16 2017, 10:29 pm

This is not going to be popular, but I firmly believe that PPD is almost entirely related to new moms getting NO SLEEP (and specifically at a time when she needs it most). Anyone who goes from getting decent sleep to suddenly waking up every 2 hours for 20 minutes (or more) could possibly become deeply depressed and possibly psychotic. I mean that literally.

So....to the extent that sleep deficiency causes PPD, it would stand to reason it would be much worse with twins where mom's sleep could be even more deficient.

amother

Tan

Sun, Jul 16 2017, 10:44 pm

amother wrote:

I don't think I have ever read something so untrue and even stupid. I have PPD after each of my 3 kids and trust me it didn't come from lack of sleep. Some ppl's PPD syptoms is excessive sleeping and being unable to get out of bed. Comments like urs can truly cause untold damage! It's disgusting to say this but maybe u shud get PPD just to realize how ignorant u sound. Having twins can possibly incraese risk of PPD, but it's no way possible to be caused from lack of sleep! Rolling Eyes

amother

Rose

Sun, Jul 16 2017, 10:52 pm

Op here. My previous postpartum wasn't PPD exactly, it was more of an extremely severe anxiety/terror like ive never experienced before in my life (literal panic 24/7 and jolting awake I terror the second I fell asleep, if ever). When that subsided I went kind of "manic" for lack of a better term. It lasted for weeks until I ended up in an intensive therapy/medication management program on heavy duty psych meds. I'm hoping to avoid that sort of thing in the future obviously. Especially now that I will have multiple children to care for, some of whom are old enough to realize if something is wrong with their mommy. I'm actually much more terrified of traditional PPD than what I had before. Depression scares the living daylights out of me. Been there when I was younger before kids and can't imagine having it with kids.

amother

Goldenrod

Sun, Jul 16 2017, 11:52 pm

amother wrote:

A great many people go into deep depression and cannot cope with life when they have severely interrupted sleep on a prolonged basis. This is a fact. I'm sorry for what you went through.

OP- no insight, but may Hashem help you be healthy always.

amother

Beige

Mon, Jul 17 2017, 2:29 am

amother wrote:

I want to half-agree with you and say one of the major causes is disordered sleep. I had the worst depression I've ever been in pre-kids when I worked a job with rotating shifts. I remember one week of pure h*ll when my boss gave me the Sun-Mon, Tue-Wed, and Thu-Fri overnight shifts- so I could deal with low-quality daytime sleep and social isolation all week, or go back and forth between day and night sleep and really go nuts. I tend towards pre-partum depression towards the end of pregnancy when I can't sleep soundly for getting up to pee and not getting comfortable, but I'm a lot better once I get multiple 2-hour chunks of quality sleep with a newborn.

amother

Blush

Mon, Jul 17 2017, 5:41 pm

bshaah tova!!! So exciting Smile

I can't answer your question from experience but I did tell dh that if we ever have twins I am not nursing them. IMO (this won't be popular but it is just my thoughts based on people I see) nursing often adds a lot of stress and discomfort and stress leads to PPD, so I would suggest giving them formula instead of nursing. That will also enable you to receive more sleep and someone else (like your husband or mother or nurse) can feed them while you sleep.
Just a suggestion. Not telling you what to do of course Smile

Feel good and may you give birth to healthy twins and be a healthy and happy PP mother!

amother

Apricot

Mon, Jul 17 2017, 6:59 pm

To amother blush:

As a mother of twins and a strong proponent of nursing, I partially agree with you. To op: if you're planning on nursing, don't kill yourself and I definitely suggest supplementing with formula so others can feed the babies. I had to stop nursing for a separate reason and it was a relief after the fact.

amother

Coffee

Tue, Jul 18 2017, 12:47 am

Emotionally I did better. (Mainly because it wasn't my first and I knew what to expect and wasn't such a nervous wreck). Physically it took me a full year to really feel like myself again. Not so with my singleton.

amother

Hotpink

Wed, Jul 19 2017, 7:53 pm

Postpartum was harder, but it was manageable. Had I had more help, would have been totally manageable.

OP, have you consulted with your psychiatrist from your previous pregnancy? If you know you are at higher risk for complications, you can possibly take medication prophylactically to avoid any problems. In addition, if you know what to look out for, you can treat it sooner if it comes - it's usually much easier to head off a big reaction if you deal with it promptly.