Twin Pregnancy Nutrition
Your Best Chance for a Natural Birth and Healthy Babies

Twin pregnancy nutrition is important - no, vital - to a healthy twin pregnancy, a healthy mom and healthy babies, and a natural birth.

If you have found this page then you are dedicated to having a healthy pregnancy and to do the best you can for yourself and your babies. You are so wise to know that nutrition is key.

During my last twin pregnancy, I kept a journal of my food intake to ensure that:

1) I was eating enough calories

2) I was eating enough proteins

I will share a sample of my diet so you can get an idea of what I ate and how much. Remember that this is by no means THE only way to eat. This page is here to help you and encourage you.

Twin Pregnancy Nutrition: Your Requirements

It is very important for you to eat enough good quality foods as well as enough proteins every day.

Many believe that the reason twins are often premature is that some women do not eat an adequate amount of calories and/or of proteins and therefore they have an inadequate blood volume expansion.

Your blood volume is supposed to expand - by 50 to 60% - and will peak at around 28 to 30 weeks of pregnancy. This occurs because your body must provide support for an increasingly larger and more complex organ: your baby's - or in the case of twins...babies' - placenta(s).

An adequate blood volume expansion will result in an adequate exchange of nutrients - and waste - between you and your babies.

On the other hand, many believe that an inadequate blood volume expansion will cause you to suffer from premature labor.

An adequate blood volume expansion is also a protection against shock should you lose excess blood after birth.

And you guessed it, your food intake directly affects this critical process ( blood volume expansion) which - as you can see - affects your babies' lives as well as your own.

Twin Pregnancy Info:
What are the Daily Requirements for a Twin Pregnancy

Elizabeth Noble in her book Having Twins And More: A Parent's Guide to Multiple Pregnancy, Birth, and Early Childhood recommends - as we do - the "Brewer Diet," which calls for 500 extra calories per baby as well as 140 to 150 grams of protein.

For twins, this comes to about 3200 calories per day and minimally 150g of protein per day. That is a lot of food!

You should also keep up with your fluid intake. By fluid intake we mean water. Coffee, juice, and sodas or the likes do not qualify as fluids. This is very serious as dehydration can bring on contractions and therefore labor.

Twin Pregnancy Nutrition: Diet Sample

Twin Pregnancy Nutrition: Notes

To be perfectly honest, there were some days I did not feel like eating as much as I needed to and there were other days when my diet did not look this good. We are human after all.

I knew it was very important that I eat well most days and enough...which at the end, when your stomach has hiked up under your rib cage, is NOT easy. This is the main reason why I kept a food diary.

When I could not eat enough and my protein intake seemed slow I resorted to taking a protein powder - named Glycoslim (vanilla or chocolate) - which I mixed with some milk.

The boys were born term at 38 weeks 2 days - which is normal for me - weighing 7 lbs 12 oz and 7 lbs 1 oz.

Success!

If you want to get a hold of me you certainly may...I would love to hear from you! We also welcome your questions.

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