i actually disagree with posters who push for emergency scans and check up, stating stuff like "this could be a matter of life or death for baby(ies) or you. "
this just adds up to the anxiety and since this is OP's 6th pregnancy, i'd reckon her body and her instincts can tell if something is really seriously off. Also, if it were something THAT serious, little to nothing can be done for the baby at 12 weeks gestation.
considering where she lives, it's not that she can just walk in a clinic and access a medical professional just like that. and as she said, if her midwife wasn't concerned, and the OP as well feels like nothing is off, except for the twin hunch, then i see no use in raising panic and anxiety.
ALL women and pregnancies are different. I have friends who popped at 12-14 weeks and friends who were well into their 7th month and not showing in their normal clothes (and one of them, not even in a bikini at 6 months. nothing. just a four-pack).
so sure, that IS an insane bump for 11 weeks, but that's HER bump. and comparing her to this or that really doesn't make much sense.
there were women having twins also earlier in history, before the sensitive ultrasounds and all that and still having babies. if i ain't wrong, there's a lady here on BnB that discovered she was having twins at 38 weeks, and it was all just fine.
sure, getting checked up is important, but trusting our bodies is even more so.
I think this *really* trivializes the risks involved with not just multiple pregnancies, but pregnancy in general.
Are there some women who manage to birth healthy children despite never knowing they were having multiples, or even one child? Sure! Without having access to healthcare at all? Absolutely. But that's the exception to the rule and any educated individual knows that's fact.
Earlier in history maternal and fetal death was common in pregnancy, labor and delivery. To this day it's still a common occurrence where prenatal care and knowledgeable staff isn't available during delivery is sparse. You look at the stats in any third world country. Tell them your one example here on this board means they're all fine too. It's simply not true.
As far as trusting ones body goes - again, I think that's really unfair. How many women here do we see here on first tri board swear they're pregnant despite loads of negative tests? How many women swear throughout pregnancy that there's something wrong with their baby, who end up giving birth to healthy and happy at the end of the day? How many on the flip side of that go in for a normal appointment thinking everything is fine and then are rushed off for emergency deliveries or monitoring because it's not. Saying it should all boil down to simply trusting your body is dangerous, and seriously discounts all women who have had the unexpected thrust upon them. That again is the exception, not the rule, and is super dangerous advice when talking about a potential multiple pregnancy.
I'm not meaning to add to the anxiety, but to be fair put that concern where it actually belongs - the anxiety exists not because I'm voicing concern about the risk to both mother and potential babies, but because OP says she doesn't have the access to sort this out one way or another. Sticking ones head in the sand hyping someone up about a healthy twin pregnancy isn't fair, and imo that's about all this thread has been thus far. It's pretty alarming to be frank. Where is the concern that without enough folic acid supplementation, this could end tragically for the potential children involved? If mo/mo or mo/di - TTS could take the lives of one well before 20 weeks without intervention. Without checking my levels for vitamin D specifically and supplementing, my body would not have been able to offer my boys enough to properly develop their bones - possibly ending in a lifetime of deformities and pain.
You talk to (almost) any mother who's been pregnant with twins and they'll tell you it does change the prenatal care rules - for very good reason - and well before 20 weeks. At that point any potential damage may well have long since been done.
I realize Canada is run national health service style, but that doesn't mean privatized care isn't also available. If I truly believed a multiple pregnancy was a possibility and that were my only option to sorting out the issue either way, I'd take it - as should OP. I do hope she pushes her midwife and pushes her HARD for some answers. I would refuse to leave until I had an explanation because advocating for your own health is so incredibly important.
I'm hoping she will be shocked by my size too and do one! lol I'm basing it all on a few reasons, not just that I'm big for how far along I am.. but hopefully the big belly will make her think twice and give me another scan either at my appointment or a few days after. The machine is there, but there are no techs here to use it - but she knows enough how to use it to take a peek.
. I loved your posts and concur that something might be going on that needs further observation in this case. Until you are pregnant with twins, it's hard to imagine the risks involved. Unfortunately, I still recall a case where the mother refused all scans and went natural with a midwife. She had a very rare (1% of the time in identical twinning) momo gestation that wasn't discovered until she simply no longer felt any kicks. They suspected two based on measuring so large and fetal movement. Had she been monitored, she would have been inpatient on hospital bedrest with the babies Hb's constantly monitored for decels due to cord entanglement and compression past 24 weeks. Instead, she has a broken heart and two dead babies. They would have been her first.
