When You're Expecting Twins, Triplets, or Quads: Proven Guidelines for a Healthy Multiple Pregnancy, 3rd Edition

You're expecting more than one baby? Congratulations!

Effective, encouraging, and up-to-date, When You're Expecting Twins, Triplets, or Quads is essential for you and your babies.

Like all mothers-to-be, you're experiencing the full spectrum of human emotions: joy, fear, confusion, and excitement—maybe all at once. As a woman pregnant with more than one baby, you're feeling all these things . . . only more so!

In When You're Expecting Twins, Triplets, or Quads, Dr. Barbara Luke, an acknowledged expert on the prenatal care of multiples, outlines a practical, nutrition-based program to keep you and your babies healthy, and she offers a comprehensive tour of what you can expect during your unique pregnancy and childbirth experience. Women who follow this program have significantly fewer complications during pregnancy—and their babies are born weighing 20 to 35 percent more than the average twin, triplet, or quad. Included is crucial information on:

• Finding a qualified maternal/fetal medicine specialist
• Dietary guidelines for maximizing birthweight
• Safe limits on exercise, physical activity, and work
• Taking a leave from your job and negotiating the best deal
• Reducing your risk for pregnancy complications
• Recognizing the signs of preterm labor and what to do about them
• What to expect during and after delivery
• Feeding and caring for your newborns . . . and yourself
• Getting back into shape after delivery

Subjects like nutrition, mom's changing body and emotions, fetal development, potential complications, and labor and delivery take on new meaning when you add another baby or two to the standard equation. With the goal of minimizing risk factors associated with multiple births, Dr. Barbara Luke and her team of writers cover each subject with a buoyant determination to tell it all and tell it well--avoiding the typical "how to name and dress your twins" issues. Accompanying the detailed medical perspective of Dr. Luke are personal experiences gathered from the journals of a few articulate moms, making each subject as real as it is educational. Simple illustrations, valuable charts (including one to plot and monitor fetal growth in grams or pounds), specific menu examples (like how can you consume 4,500 calories if you're expecting quads???), and lots of reassurance make this book a winner. --Liane Thomas