Fierce, Kind Mama of Multiples
This podcast is for anyone raising multiples (twins, triplets or more). I speak to inspiring parents of multiples who have healed from unexpected pregnancies and birthing experiences and who candidly share the highs and lows of raising multiples. I also speak to the professionals that work with multiple birth families. Together, we cover the practicalities of raising more than one baby at a time as well as enhancing the emotional wellbeing of caregivers and children alike.
Fierce, Kind Mama of Multiples
Against All Odds: A Journey Through Twin Pregnancy Complications
In this episode, Alex Weehuizen shares her emotional journey through a twin pregnancy filled with unexpected challenges. From early pregnancy fears to a surprising diagnosis of twin to twin transfusion syndrome, Alex takes us through the highs and lows, culminating in a premature delivery. Her story is a testament to resilience, hope, and the incredible care she received along the way.
Alex is a parenting mentor, postpartum doula, qualified early childhood teacher and mother to twins. She is passionate about respectful and responsive care for both parents and their children. Her challenging perinatal experiences inspired her to establish Precious Beginnings, a 10-week postpartum and parenting programme centered around conversations. Precious Beginnings’ vision is to support parents so that they can connect with other parents in the same season of life and grow in their parenting confidence.
CONTENT NOTE:
In this episode, she talks about her experience of miscarriage, twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome and postpartum anxiety.
Here are some services in Australia for those that may need support around pregnancy loss or postpartum anxiety.
https://www.pregnancylossaustralia.org.au/
Crisis lines (24-hour support):
LIFELINE
13 11 14
BEYOND BLUE
1300 22 4636
I hope you enjoy this episode!
You can connect with Alex here:
Email: alex@nurtured.net.nz
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nurtured.parenting/
Website: www.nurtured.net.nz
Thanks for listening! If you are a soon-to-be or current parent of multiples, be sure to head over to my website http://www.fiercekindmama.com to get my FREE resources designed specifically for you!
Be sure to follow me on Instagram and Facebook too.
Credits:
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/aylex/with-you
License code: YLMJTQCPKRANEOVB
00:00:06 Dr Cristina Cavezza
Welcome to the Fierce Kind Mama of Multiples podcast. This podcast is for anyone raising multiples, twins, triplets or more. I speak to inspiring parents of multiples who have healed from unexpected pregnancies and birthing experiences and who candidly share the highs and lows of raising multiples.
00:00:27 Dr Cristina Cavezza
I also speak to the
00:00:28 Dr Cristina Cavezza
Professionals that work with multiple birth families.
00:00:31 Dr Cristina Cavezza
Together we cover the practicalities of raising more than one baby at a time, as well as enhancing the emotional well-being of caregivers and children alike. Come join us as we laugh, cry, and share our personal and professional wisdom on all things multiples. I'm your host, Dr Cristina Cavezza
00:00:51 Dr Cristina Cavezza
And I am a fierce kind Mama of multiples
00:00:58 Dr Cristina Cavezza
On today's episode, I'm joined by Alex Weehuizen. Alex is a parenting mentor, postpartum doula, qualified early childhood teacher, and mother to twins. She is passionate about respectful and responsive care for both parents and their children. Her challenging perinatal experiences
00:01:17 Dr Cristina Cavezza
Inspired her to establish precious beginnings, a 10 week postpartum and parenting programme centred around conversations. Precious beginnings vision is to support parents so that they can connect with other parents in the same season of life and grow in their parenting confidence.
00:01:36 Dr Cristina Cavezza
In this episode, Alex talks about her experience of miscarriage, twin to twin Transfusion syndrome, and postpartum anxiety. I know that this topic can be distressing to some listeners, so there are some links in the podcast show notes to services in Australia for those that may need support
00:01:55 Dr Cristina Cavezza
around pregnancy loss. I hope you enjoy this episode.
00:01:59 Dr Cristina Cavezza
So I'd love to welcome on today's episode Alex Weehuizen. Alex. I hope I haven't butchered your surname. Well done. OK, great to have you here. Actually, Alex and I have recently met, connected through motherhood sociology studies course that we're doing. And so it's lovely to see you. I also follow Alex on Instagram.
00:02:06 Alex Weehuizen
OK. Thanks.
00:02:19 Dr Cristina Cavezza
I mean, she just puts up the most amazing content, so if you're not following her already, we'll have that in the podcast show notes for you. But definitely, I would encourage you to
00:02:27 Dr Cristina Cavezza
check her out.
00:02:28 Dr Cristina Cavezza
So, Alex, why don't we just begin by you telling us a bit about yourself and your multiple birth journey?
00:02:34 Alex Weehuizen
So I'm living in Wanaka in New Zealand, so that's an a southern kind of Alpine tourist town here. So currently it's winter and it's well, it's almost winter and it's cold now and we've been living here since 2015. So we moved here when my twins were 1 1/2 and so eight years now, but yes I'm
00:02:54 Alex Weehuizen
a mother to
00:02:55 Alex Weehuizen
Identical twin boys, Max and Elliot.
00:02:57 Alex Weehuizen
And they are 9 1/2 now.
00:02:59 Alex Weehuizen
Yeah, and yeah, before I became a mother, I was a nanny and I nannied for about 5 years before becoming a qualified early childhood teacher. So I started teaching in 2008, and I had a variety of different types of roles in early childhood, and I really
00:03:19 Alex Weehuizen
Loved the texture of that
00:03:21 Alex Weehuizen
Role and working with families and parents.
00:03:24 Alex Weehuizen
And in.
00:03:25 Alex Weehuizen
2020 I think.
00:03:26 Alex Weehuizen
Like a a lot of us started to reflect on what I wanted to do long term and at this stage my children were about ohh must be.
00:03:35 Alex Weehuizen
About 6 and a.
00:03:36 Alex Weehuizen
Half when I started to really reflect.
00:03:38 Alex Weehuizen
On what I want to do with.
00:03:39 Alex Weehuizen
My life, and so I trained to.
00:03:41 Alex Weehuizen
Be a postpartum doula.
00:03:43 Alex Weehuizen
And so I started working locally doing.
00:03:45 Alex Weehuizen
Postpartum doula work.
00:03:47 Alex Weehuizen
But it was at that time I also, after reflecting on my own journey and through the training of becoming a postpartum doula, I decided that it was time to create a postpartum and parenting programme for my local community because there didn't appear to be a programme to support parents in their early transition.
00:04:07 Alex Weehuizen
into parenting.
00:04:08 Alex Weehuizen
One that supported them with information about their child's development. So.
00:04:13 Alex Weehuizen
That they could.
00:04:13 Alex Weehuizen
Make informed and empowered choices about how they wanted to interact with their children, but also one that really opens up about the challenges of becoming a new parent. For many people, it's not a smooth transition, and so I feel really passionate about.
00:04:28 Alex Weehuizen
Having like real.
00:04:30 Alex Weehuizen
And authentic conversations about that. And so, yeah, that's what I've been doing. But yeah, I did never expect it to be a twin parent.
00:04:38 Alex Weehuizen
That this is for sure.
00:04:40 Alex Weehuizen
I can tell you right now
00:04:41 Alex Weehuizen
Well, I think from when I was about 22, I knew I wanted to be a mother and then working with children, I knew that I did not want to be a mother of multiples because I saw how hard those parents parented, and I thought.
00:04:57 Alex Weehuizen
It really suit my agenda for my life and so when me and my husband started to consider having, like, starting a family, that was something that would often talk.
00:05:10 Alex Weehuizen
About like I'd hate to have
00:05:11 Alex Weehuizen
twins. What a nightmare. I was that person. I was literally that.
00:05:16 Alex Weehuizen
person and
00:05:16 Alex Weehuizen
So I never expected.
00:05:17 Alex Weehuizen
To be ever pregnant with twins just after my 29th birthday, we started trying for a family and.
00:05:25 Alex Weehuizen
I got pregnant very.
00:05:26 Alex Weehuizen
Quickly, unfortunately, we miscarried that pregnancy in around 10 1/2 weeks and that.
00:05:32 Alex Weehuizen
Was a sad time for.
00:05:33 Alex Weehuizen
Me like it was a very wanted pregnancy.
00:05:36 Alex Weehuizen
And it came. There was part of me that kind of knew something was off. So I was in some ways, not surprised I miscarried. But in another way, it was also very, very sad because it was a wanted pregnancy, but I did not have the skills to articulate that sadness.
00:05:54 Alex Weehuizen
And so I just kind of I guess I rationalised it and was like well this happens to one in four pregnancies. So you just gotta get on with it. This is not unusual. You're not special. Just get on with life. And so I did and I did 100 day Chinese cleanse.
00:06:14 Alex Weehuizen
And low and behold the following month.
00:06:17 Alex Weehuizen
I found out I was pregnant. I found.
00:06:19 Alex Weehuizen
Out I was.
00:06:19 Alex Weehuizen
Pregnant really early.
00:06:21 Alex Weehuizen
Probably no more than three weeks along, I would say, and I remember taking that pregnancy test just before I went off to my 8:00 shift at work. And I just went past my husband because he starts later and I just said Ohh, I'm pregnant and he.
00:06:35 Alex Weehuizen
Went OK, cool.
00:06:36 Alex Weehuizen
And we didn't really talk about it much after.
00:06:38 Alex Weehuizen
That because I guess we were a little bit reserved about you know we've experienced the loss. So we don't wanna get our hopes up and you know I had no morning sickness. I had none of the twins symptoms
00:06:52 Alex Weehuizen
I must have been about 7 weeks.
00:06:53 Alex Weehuizen
along. And I was talking to a parent at work who was a twin parent. And I said to her, as she's wrangling her twins out of the daycare, I said, what was it like for
00:07:05 Alex Weehuizen
You to find out you
00:07:06 Alex Weehuizen
Were having twins?
00:07:08 Alex Weehuizen
And she said, oh.
00:07:09 Alex Weehuizen
I was devastated because she had a singleton and then she
00:07:12 Alex Weehuizen
Went on to have
00:07:13 Alex Weehuizen
The twin pregnancy, and she said they just recovered financially from having one. She just received a promotion at work that she was really happy with and so finding out she was having twins was a real shock and took a while.
00:07:26 Alex Weehuizen
For her to process.
00:07:27 Alex Weehuizen
And then she said to me, and then it all made sense because, you know, I had terrible morning.
00:07:32 Alex Weehuizen
Sickness and the first trimester was.
00:07:34 Alex Weehuizen
Horrific and in my head I.
00:07:36 Alex Weehuizen
Went I don't have any of.
00:07:37 Alex Weehuizen
Those symptoms I cannot be.
00:07:39 Alex Weehuizen
Pregnant with twins.
00:07:40 Alex Weehuizen
So I went home and said to my husband. Ohh, guess what? We won't be having twins because we don't have any of these symptoms and we high fived and we.
00:07:47 Alex Weehuizen
Laughed and we got on with our lives.
00:07:49 Alex Weehuizen
And so you.
00:07:51 Alex Weehuizen
Can imagine at the 8.
00:07:52 Alex Weehuizen
Week scan when you know the Sonographer says. We always have to check for more than one babies in this scan. So here's baby A and here's baby B. And I was like, excuse me, like and my husband's.
00:08:10 Alex Weehuizen
jaw was pretty much.
00:08:11 Alex Weehuizen
On the ground. And he didn't say.
00:08:12 Alex Weehuizen
Anything. It's just.
00:08:14 Alex Weehuizen
Really silent. It was quite funny.
00:08:16 Alex Weehuizen
And so yeah, so we the reminder kind of that 12 week that first trimester was really a breeze. I was like, whoa, I'm amazing. I'm carrying twins. I like, forget that I'm pregnant half the time. And when we go out to dinner, I'll order a beer and then then I'll remember no. You shouldn't be drinking. You're pregnant and.
00:08:36 Alex Weehuizen
I just felt really, really.
00:08:37 Alex Weehuizen
Blessed like I was just.
00:08:38 Alex Weehuizen
Having this easy.
00:08:39 Alex Weehuizen
Pregnancy, like how great is this after our first.
00:08:43 Alex Weehuizen
Loss, but things were.
00:08:44 Alex Weehuizen
About to take a really sudden turn.
00:08:47 Alex Weehuizen
And I guess I was not prepared for it
00:08:49 Alex Weehuizen
At all. Because I had like this I guess a.
00:08:52 Alex Weehuizen
False sense of security in.
00:08:53 Alex Weehuizen
The first trimester.
00:08:55 Alex Weehuizen
It was at our 12 week scan.
00:08:57 Alex Weehuizen
That they confirmed that we were carrying identical twins. So MCDA twins
00:09:03 Alex Weehuizen
So that's essentially the twins have their own separate sac, but they share one placenta
00:09:10 Alex Weehuizen
And so of course I was like ohh, cool identical twins. I went and I did all the research about them cause I love facts and figures and researching. I like to know what I'm in for. And so I knew that there was a potential possibility that things could get complicated, however, I thought.
00:09:30 Alex Weehuizen
Probably not me. I've had a fairly simple.
00:09:34 Alex Weehuizen
1st trimester. and so
00:09:36 Alex Weehuizen
That was great, but it was.
00:09:38 Alex Weehuizen
Around the 13 week mark.
00:09:40 Alex Weehuizen
I just started to feel.
00:09:41 Alex Weehuizen
Off and I felt really bloated, you know, like just this intensity in my tummy and like, I would ache like I had sciatic pain and
00:09:54 Alex Weehuizen
small tasks, physical tasks I get really tired. So I went from being very active in a pretty at the time of my work I was in a leadership role so it was, you know, there was a lot of things to be managing.
00:10:07 Alex Weehuizen
And all of a sudden I had no energy and all of a sudden I was in pain and all of a sudden just putting my.
00:10:13 Alex Weehuizen
Shoes on.
00:10:14 Alex Weehuizen
Was difficult. I talked to like my.
00:10:17 Alex Weehuizen
Obstetrician and my my midwife and my acupuncturist, all wonderful people. But they said, oh, well, this is a twin pregnancy.
00:10:27 Alex Weehuizen
This is basically it's all downhill from here.
00:10:30 Alex Weehuizen
And I remember both in so.
00:10:32 Alex Weehuizen
Many words you know in nice ways.
00:10:34 Alex Weehuizen
Kind of like.
00:10:34 Alex Weehuizen
You're carrying too, and I just thought ohh my word. How on Earth am I gonna get to 35 weeks like I've just cracked 13?
00:10:44 Alex Weehuizen
And like I.
00:10:44 Alex Weehuizen
Wanna try and work till maybe 30 weeks if I can and anyway so.
00:10:50 Alex Weehuizen
Got on with life.
00:10:51 Alex Weehuizen
You just have to keep telling. No suck it up. Alex. This is just what it is now. And it was with identical twin pregnancies. You know, they have the fortnightly scans from 16 weeks along.
00:11:02 Alex Weehuizen
And as.
00:11:03 Alex Weehuizen
I told you.
00:11:04 Alex Weehuizen
I'm a researcher. I like to know what's happening, especially when it's in regards to my body. I like to be really informed and as soon as they started the first fortnightly scan at 16 weeks I could see something was wrong and I turned to the sonographer because she was so kind of getting more and more.
00:11:23 Alex Weehuizen
silent. She was chatty at the beginning because I'm.
00:11:25 Alex Weehuizen
A chatterbox and.
00:11:26 Alex Weehuizen
She was chatty, but the chatter.
00:11:28 Alex Weehuizen
Kind of slowed down and she started scanning and I could see there was a fluid discrepancy that was very clear.
00:11:35 Dr Cristina Cavezza
Alright, so it's actually visible to you, like you could see it on that.
00:11:35 Alex Weehuizen
on the scan and
00:11:40 Dr Cristina Cavezza
Yeah, right. OK.
00:11:42 Alex Weehuizen
Perhaps because I was already quite informed before the scan like I had gone down a rabbit hole online and.
00:11:49 Alex Weehuizen
So I turned to her and
00:11:50 Alex Weehuizen
Said I have twin to twin transfusion syndrome, don't I? And she said I cannot tell you anything, but you cannot leave this hospital until you see an obstetrician and.
00:12:01 Dr Cristina Cavezza
Ohh wow.
00:12:02 Alex Weehuizen
This was on my.
00:12:03 Alex Weehuizen
Lunch break too. I was meant to be back at.
00:12:04 Alex Weehuizen
Work and so I.
00:12:06 Dr Cristina Cavezza
Oh gosh.
00:12:08 Alex Weehuizen
So I had the scan and then went and waited for an obstetrician, and obviously the public health system. You're.
00:12:15 Alex Weehuizen
Waiting two or three hours.
00:12:17 Alex Weehuizen
And at this appointment, they just looked at me and said.
00:12:21 Alex Weehuizen
We're really sorry.
00:12:22 Alex Weehuizen
But their condition is dire. It's unlikely they would survive, so it's 16 weeks
00:12:27 Alex Weehuizen
along we were already at.
00:12:30 Alex Weehuizen
Stage 2 of twin to twin Transfusion syndrome and there's five stages of twin to twin Transfusion syndrome. Stage one is the a fluid, discordant stage. Two is where there's not a visible bladder on either one or two of the twins.
00:12:45 Alex Weehuizen
And we use like the fluids. There's different levels of the fluids. One of my babies was basically stuck. What they essentially say is shrink wrapped within the uterus. So he wasn't creating any amniotic fluid. And the other twin was creating too much amniotic fluid and his organs were all working too hard.
00:13:05 Alex Weehuizen
So it's basically the what happens with twin to twin transfusion syndrome is that the blood flow between both babies is inconsistent.
00:13:15 Alex Weehuizen
So one is too much blood, creates too much fluid, and the organs work really hard and the other one doesn't get much blood, doesn't create much amniotic fluid, and the organs start to shut down. So we're already at stage two at 16 weeks. And from my research, it seems as though many people stay at stage one for a couple of weeks.
00:13:36 Alex Weehuizen
But once you progress from stage two, it can progress within hours like it can progress very, very quickly and left untreated, you know, the mortality rates are around like 98%.
00:13:49 Alex Weehuizen
So it's really.
00:13:51 Alex Weehuizen
Like quite stark.
00:13:53 Dr Cristina Cavezza
Yeah, absolutely.
00:13:54 Alex Weehuizen
But that's pretty wild, so you can imagine going from a really easy trimester the best trimester to then all of a sudden like well.
00:14:02 Alex Weehuizen
This is not.
00:14:03 Alex Weehuizen
What we expected to be told there, it's unlikely these guys are gonna survive. You know, we live in New Zealand. This is almost 10 years ago now and there was only one person in New Zealand at the time that treated
00:14:14 Alex Weehuizen
twin to twin and they happened
00:14:15 Alex Weehuizen
To be out of the country.
00:14:17 Dr Cristina Cavezza
Ohh Gosh
00:14:19 Alex Weehuizen
I was basically sent home at the 16 week appointment and I was told to wait it out so I.
00:14:25 Dr Cristina Cavezza
Ohh yeah right.
00:14:25 Alex Weehuizen
Mean you could.
00:14:26 Alex Weehuizen
Read between the lines, but it kind of sounds like they were saying just wait to miscarry. A few days later I started to feel really off again, and so I insisted on seeing another obstetrician.
00:14:38 Alex Weehuizen
And when I got to that appointment, they said, look, you've been given a terrible diagnosis. So I wanted to see the obstetrician because I had really itchy hands and itchy.
00:14:49 Alex Weehuizen
Feet and I couldn't sleep and I'd lost my appetite and just really not like me. And they just told me that it was psychosomatic and that I should go home. And they gave me some sleeping pills, just as I was leaving the appointment, they said Ohh, have we done blood tests on you. And I said no. They hadn't done urine samples.
00:15:11 Alex Weehuizen
On me and they, they gave me a urine sample, they said, well, we can tell what's wrong with you. You're not drinking water. And which was absolutely not right. Because my urine was basically brown. And a few days later, results came back to say that I had quite an advanced case of ICP, which is, Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy
00:15:31 Alex Weehuizen
which is a hormonal liver condition where basically your body isn't processing your liver bile properly.
00:15:41 Dr Cristina Cavezza
So you had both the twin to twin Transfusion syndrome and the ICP at the same time you're on. You're having this. Ohh gosh. OK.
00:15:49 Alex Weehuizen
Yeah. So ICP as well, it's more prevalent in.
00:15:52 Alex Weehuizen
multiple births but it.
00:15:55 Alex Weehuizen
Normally doesn't show up till 32 weeks in gestation.
00:15:59 Dr Cristina Cavezza
OK so.
00:16:00 Alex Weehuizen
I had significant levels at 16 weeks, so ICP can cause still birth
00:16:06 Alex Weehuizen
You know, it's not great for mum, but it affects the health of the babies as well.
00:16:09 Alex Weehuizen
So that was actually kind.
00:16:12 Alex Weehuizen
Of a blessing in.
00:16:13 Alex Weehuizen
Disguise because then.
00:16:14 Alex Weehuizen
I got pushed.
00:16:15 Alex Weehuizen
To a more advanced hospital locally. And so at 17 weeks when I went to my next appointment for an ultrasound.
00:16:25 Alex Weehuizen
They discovered that I was now at stage 3 twin to twin transfusion syndrome.
00:16:30 Alex Weehuizen
And that I needed to have foetal surgery within 48 hours, otherwise the boys would most likely pass away so.
00:16:38 Alex Weehuizen
That was a.
00:16:39 Alex Weehuizen
Real whirlwind because as I mentioned, the surgeon that was in New Zealand at the time was overseas and so she wasn't available to do the surgery.
00:16:50 Alex Weehuizen
So I then had to fly to Brisbane to Mater hospital.
00:16:55 Dr Cristina Cavezza
OK, right.
00:16:57 Alex Weehuizen
The complication there is that my husband and I, because we were wanting.
00:17:01 Alex Weehuizen
To start a family.
00:17:02 Alex Weehuizen
Our passports expired and we decided.
00:17:04 Alex Weehuizen
Not to renew them because we were gonna have a family and we wouldn't have money for travel.
00:17:10 Dr Cristina Cavezza
Ohh no. So how did you?
00:17:12 Dr Cristina Cavezza
Get to Australia.
00:17:14 Alex Weehuizen
So that night we had.
00:17:16 Alex Weehuizen
Like a 3:00 PM appointment with our NFT.
00:17:19 Alex Weehuizen
So as soon as they told us that we went straight to the like emergency Passport office and we spent about 7 hours there getting passports, emergency passports, and they were just so incredible. I've gotta say that they were just so helpful. I was very, very fortunate and yeah.
00:17:39 Alex Weehuizen
In New Zealand, so if there's surgery, the hospitals organise all your travel so they do all the communications between hospitals and in because we have an agreement with Australia, the hospital, you know, contacts, whatever hospital that the patient needs treatment.
00:17:44 Dr Cristina Cavezza
OK.
00:17:57 Alex Weehuizen
So it was very streamlined. Basically I we just had to turn up to the airport and get on a plane. And so that started out well. I guess a baby moon over to Brisbane and we went and met the team at, Mater hospital and what an incredible hospital.
00:18:19 Alex Weehuizen
Just you know, I was coming from a place of, but Oh my gosh. Like, this is horrific. Like such a stressful place to be personally. And then to get to a hospital like that where they everyone was so calm and everyone was so like, ohh, we see twin to twin all the time. Like this is easy. You know, like they're just.
00:18:39 Alex Weehuizen
Although maybe it wasn't easy.
00:18:40 Alex Weehuizen
But like they made it out like it.
00:18:42 Alex Weehuizen
Wasn't like a stressful situation and they gave us a.
00:18:45 Alex Weehuizen
Lot of hope where in New Zealand I
00:18:48 Alex Weehuizen
Didn't feel that sense.
00:18:49 Alex Weehuizen
Of hope.
00:18:50 Alex Weehuizen
So I feel very, very blessed that we were.
00:18:52 Alex Weehuizen
Able to go there. Brisbane because we had.
00:18:55 Alex Weehuizen
Incredible care. I can still remember the operating room. I can still remember.
00:18:59 Alex Weehuizen
Some of the dialogue that.
00:19:01 Alex Weehuizen
We had and I could.
00:19:02 Alex Weehuizen
Hear the lasers. You know I could hear the different things that were happening.
00:19:07 Alex Weehuizen
So there was that.
00:19:08 Alex Weehuizen
sort of connection like I was.
00:19:10 Alex Weehuizen
Glad to be awake because it made me.
00:19:12 Alex Weehuizen
Feel like I was there. I was connected.
00:19:15 Alex Weehuizen
To what was happening.
00:19:16 Alex Weehuizen
Wasn't like this out of body experience.
00:19:18 Alex Weehuizen
So yeah, so we had.
00:19:20 Alex Weehuizen
The surgery and in recovery my husband came and stayed with me and like just the relief of seeing him.
00:19:26 Alex Weehuizen
Like it was just.
00:19:27 Alex Weehuizen
Out of this world and just knowing that he was there.
00:19:30 Alex Weehuizen
And then we had to wait for 24 hours and before we could have our scan to see if the babies.
00:19:36 Alex Weehuizen
Had survived the.
00:19:37 Alex Weehuizen
Surgery and they said the 1st 24 hours is the most dangerous. You know, like that's when anything could really happen. And if the baby survived the 1st 24 hours, then you know that was a really positive.
00:19:50 Alex Weehuizen
Sign. So you can imagine like the following day, you know, like waiting for the scan and.
00:19:56 Alex Weehuizen
Being like oh.
00:19:57 Alex Weehuizen
My gosh, what are they gonna?
00:19:58 Alex Weehuizen
Find and so they did the scan and they saw two heartbeats, which was incredible. And we were so, like, such a relief, like such a relief. And we stayed at, Mater hospital for about 8 days and then we flew home to New Zealand. And then I was on.
00:20:14 Alex Weehuizen
Modified bed rest
00:20:16 Alex Weehuizen
Which is for someone like me a difficult thing.
00:20:19 Alex Weehuizen
Because you're just out of your normal routine. I'm normally doing stuff, catching up with people and all.
00:20:25 Alex Weehuizen
Of a sudden I was.
00:20:26 Alex Weehuizen
Home on the couch with my dog.
00:20:28 Alex Weehuizen
And that was.
00:20:29 Alex Weehuizen
Really lonely. I remember trying not to think.
00:20:32 Alex Weehuizen
Of my pregnancy.
00:20:33 Alex Weehuizen
Because I didn't want to get my hopes up. And so there was a lot of the time where I didn't think about my boys because I think it was a self preservation sort of type of thing. And so yeah, we had lots of appointments, you know, scans.
00:20:48 Alex Weehuizen
Fortnightly, sometimes weekly and every that drive to the hospital. There's a real sense of anxiety because I never really knew what.
00:20:57 Alex Weehuizen
Was going on.
00:20:59 Alex Weehuizen
But I would hide that I hid that from my specialists. I hid that from my husband. I think he sensed, obviously, that I was anxious, but I don't think he understood the level of my anxiety and it was around. We've been told that, you know, the surgery would hopefully give us an additional 10 weeks on the pregnancy. So since we had the surgery at 17.
00:21:20 Alex Weehuizen
Weeks and three days, they hoped that.
00:21:22 Alex Weehuizen
We would get.
00:21:23 Alex Weehuizen
To around 27.
00:21:24 Alex Weehuizen
Weeks. And so I was hopeful. You know, I was like, I could do this.
00:21:29 Alex Weehuizen
Every day you.
00:21:30 Alex Weehuizen
Know the one piece of advice from the NFM nurse.
00:21:33 Alex Weehuizen
Like just every day, just one day at a time. You know, like every day is awesome. And I always remember thinking that was one day at a time. And in one morning it was the morning of my baby shower. I was 25 weeks and six days, and I was so excited for my baby shower because a lot of people, I hadn't been able to see throughout
00:21:54 Alex Weehuizen
my pregnancy because I.
00:21:55 Alex Weehuizen
Didn't have the emotional capacity or I couldn't.
00:21:57 Alex Weehuizen
Get out to social.
00:21:58 Alex Weehuizen
things and I was so excited and my husband was out and I didn't go with him because I was like, I need my energy, but I need to save it for the afternoon. I know it's gonna be a big afternoon, so I slept in and then I remember going. I need to go to the toilet and I got up and I had.
00:22:16 Alex Weehuizen
A big gash of fluid, run
00:22:18 Alex Weehuizen
down my legs and I just thought, Oh my gosh, no, this is not happening. This is 25 and six. I am not 27 weeks. This is not cool.
00:22:27 Alex Weehuizen
We rushed to the.
00:22:28 Alex Weehuizen
Hospital and fortunately it wasn't my water. My waters had not broken. They weren't entirely sure why I was leaking
00:22:36 Alex Weehuizen
amniotic fluid
00:22:38 Alex Weehuizen
And it was later discovered that it was. Well, they think it's kind of theorized that there may have been a hind water leak, which is basically maybe there was a leak higher up in the uterus. Maybe the baby blocked it or something filled the gap. It's kind of rare. I've tried to research hind water leaks and I haven't found a lot of information about it.
00:22:57 Alex Weehuizen
That I was like, cool. As long as it's not.
00:22:59 Alex Weehuizen
The water's.
00:22:59 Alex Weehuizen
Breaking but it was at that.
00:23:01 Alex Weehuizen
Time as well that.
00:23:02 Alex Weehuizen
I that the hospital I blacked out at.
00:23:05 Alex Weehuizen
Hospital and that was a really scary time because I woke up and there was people jabbing lines into me
00:23:13 Alex Weehuizen
And telling me.
00:23:13 Alex Weehuizen
To breathe and kinda not resuscitating me but kind of getting me back to I guess reality. I don't know what really happened but but it turned out that I my heart rate.
00:23:25 Alex Weehuizen
Was very erratic and from that point I was diagnosed with tachycardia of pregnancy and so for the remainder of my pregnancy my heart rate was about 160 beats a minute
00:23:36 Alex Weehuizen
and so very fast.
00:23:38 Dr Cristina Cavezza
Wow.
00:23:40 Alex Weehuizen
Yeah. So they monitored me for that. So my waters actually broke at about 28 and six and that was like I remember like that day I saw some fluid come out and I was like, no, this isn't happening. I went to bed and I was like, I'm just gonna ignore this. This isn't happening. I was in total denial. I went and had a sleep.
00:24:00 Alex Weehuizen
About 3 hours I woke up and my husband took it. He was working from home at the time and he came in and he was.
00:24:06 Alex Weehuizen
Like how you doing and I.
00:24:06 Alex Weehuizen
Was like, oh, I'm doing fine. Fine. Eventually I said to him. Ohh.
00:24:10 Alex Weehuizen
I think there's some like weird fluid and he was like get.
00:24:15 Alex Weehuizen
In the car, we're going into the.
00:24:16 Alex Weehuizen
Hospital. Obviously it wasn't a big dash of fluid, you know, but when we got to.
00:24:21 Alex Weehuizen
The hospital they.
00:24:22 Alex Weehuizen
Were like, yeah, your waters have broken.
00:24:24 Alex Weehuizen
And that's like huge.
00:24:27 Alex Weehuizen
Sadness just washed over me. Then when they were giving me the steroid injections.
00:24:31 Alex Weehuizen
And just kind of like this is it, this is gonna happen. It's gonna happen anytime.
00:24:35 Alex Weehuizen
Yeah, obviously very thankful that we got past 10 weeks post surgery, but also very sad. And then I was in hospital, I was 30, I had been an inpatient for about a week to 10 days and then I had just said good night to my husband had come over for a visit and.
00:24:54 Alex Weehuizen
He just left the hospital.
00:24:55 Alex Weehuizen
And I went.
00:24:56 Alex Weehuizen
To the toilet and I had an antepartum haemorrhage and I lost about 700 mils of blood and I was then rushed down.
00:25:04 Alex Weehuizen
To delivery suite.
00:25:05 Alex Weehuizen
But I was three days in the delivery suite and then finally it was time and one of my nurses came in and she was one of those really cool nurses that will, like, take the edge off the stressful situation. So she knew that I liked a bit of a joke and.
00:25:21 Alex Weehuizen
She came in and she was.
00:25:22 Alex Weehuizen
Like Ohh Alex, I've never seen you.
00:25:24 Alex Weehuizen
Look so good and refreshed.
00:25:26 Alex Weehuizen
And you know, making a jest of it. And she said, like, how have you been? Like, have you noticed any contractions or anything like this? I mean, I was so.
00:25:33 Alex Weehuizen
Disconnected from my body at.
00:25:34 Alex Weehuizen
The time I just like. I don't know.
00:25:36 Alex Weehuizen
But the machines
00:25:36 Alex Weehuizen
Going a bit wild and she looked at.
00:25:38 Alex Weehuizen
The machine and she went. I'm gonna go and.
00:25:40 Alex Weehuizen
Get your doctor. And so the doctor came in.
00:25:43 Alex Weehuizen
And they checked. And Alex, you're in Labour.
00:25:45 Alex Weehuizen
You know you're 1 1/2 centimetres.
00:25:47 Alex Weehuizen
dilated. like you're having these babies tonight and I was so happy. I was so excited to get the children out of me.
00:25:56 Alex Weehuizen
I just felt.
00:25:57 Alex Weehuizen
Like my womb was unsafe, I felt like.
00:26:01 Alex Weehuizen
So many things had happened.
00:26:03 Alex Weehuizen
That I just wanted them to be out there and visible and then somebody else's problem. Right, like no longer my responsibility. And you know, they had warned me, you know, when they prep you for the surgery. The C-section they had said, you know, just be aware that it's unlikely your babies are gonna cry.
00:26:24 Alex Weehuizen
because they are so premature. I was 30 weeks and three days at the time. And so I was like, OK, have low expectations because.
00:26:29 Dr Cristina Cavezza
OK.
00:26:35 Alex Weehuizen
If you get too high expectations, you further to fall on disappointment and.
00:26:40 Alex Weehuizen
Yeah. So it was just during the whole C-section was a lovely experience for me, just a beautiful team around me. The words that were spoken around me were really powerful and just positive and excited. There wasn't a sense of dread or fear or emergency, and they pulled out.
00:27:00 Alex Weehuizen
My first baby Max and the head
00:27:04 Alex Weehuizen
Obstetrician said, Alex. They're perfect. They are absolutely perfect. And so for me as a mother that had gone through a pregnancy where everything was not perfect, the power of those words changed my whole experience to see them as just perfect little beings and.
00:27:23 Alex Weehuizen
They did cry.
00:27:24 Alex Weehuizen
And they screamed and they cried. And it was like just ohh. It was just, I don't know, like, just beautiful and, you know, even thinking about it was just like full of goosebumps and lovely memories. So.
00:27:37 Dr Cristina Cavezza
I've got goosebumps listening to you.
00:27:37 Alex Weehuizen
For me, my.
00:27:41 Dr Cristina Cavezza
Yeah, absolutely. Like, it's such a remarkable story.
00:27:44 Alex Weehuizen
Yeah. You know, one of my twins was born with amniotic banding syndrome and essentially his arm was strangulated in the womb. And for some doctors may have seen that and panicked. It was really reassuring when people were saying.
00:27:59 Alex Weehuizen
Ohh he's perfect.
00:28:00 Alex Weehuizen
You know, even though he's he's got issues. But yeah, I'm.
00:28:04 Alex Weehuizen
Just really thankful.
00:28:05 Alex Weehuizen
for my C-section experience and the people around me at the time and it really emphasized to me like just how powerful words can be.
00:28:13 Alex Weehuizen
Powerful conversations around you and all those things. So and that's when I felt became really emblazed and impassioned to support families and to have really real conversations. I spent, like, probably the first five years of my parenting journey not talking about.
00:28:34 Alex Weehuizen
How I was actually feeling how I was actually challenged. I wanted to appear like I had everything together and that just was not the truth.
00:28:46 Alex Weehuizen
And now I.
00:28:47 Alex Weehuizen
Flipped the whole other way where I am all about talking about my challenges. I'm all about talking about things that I don't like about parenting. I love my children like you would not believe, and I often call myself like the fierce lioness mother.
00:29:05 Alex Weehuizen
You know, like I would die for those kids, but there are elements of mothering that I find incredibly difficult. And now I love talking about it because I didn't have somebody around me talking about the ups and downs of parenting. And so I feel like we need to create a.
00:29:24 Alex Weehuizen
Culture, where we can have real conversations.
00:29:28 Alex Weehuizen
Where we can.
00:29:29 Alex Weehuizen
Really, celebrate the successes and the triumphs of parenting.
00:29:32 Alex Weehuizen
Because yeah, it's.
00:29:33 Alex Weehuizen
Incredible to be a parent and I'm so.
00:29:35 Alex Weehuizen
Thankful for the honour to be.
00:29:37 Alex Weehuizen
Able to have children and.
00:29:39 Alex Weehuizen
To raise my little men, but also it is on.
00:29:42 Alex Weehuizen
The other hand.
00:29:43 Alex Weehuizen
Very challenging. So I'm all about that.
00:29:45 Alex Weehuizen
Now and everything that I do with my work and I feel really privileged to have those conversations with parents and it's really great when I know that people reach out to me because they know they can have that conversation with me and you're not gonna be judged.
00:30:02 Dr Cristina Cavezza
Hi there fierce kind mama
00:30:04 Dr Cristina Cavezza
are you expecting multiples and wondering how you're going to cope when the babies
00:30:08 Dr Cristina Cavezza
arrive or do you already have multiples at home and wonder will this ever get easier? First of all, let me say loud and clear, I get it! Feeling overwhelmed in motherhood is really common and us mothers of multiples are particularly prone to
00:30:24 Dr Cristina Cavezza
feeling sometimes, like it's all too much. I know for myself that becoming a first time mother to twins at the age of 40 was a huge adjustment physically and psychologically.
00:30:34 Dr Cristina Cavezza
So I've taken my years of training in mental health and my experience coaching mothers of multiples
00:30:39 Dr Cristina Cavezza
And put together a guide with my 5 top tips for overcoming overwhelm as a multiple birth parent. This guide is free of course, and it doesn't matter what age multiples you have. You may be pregnant, or your multiples might have already left home. The principles apply to all parents of multiples and because I know you're short on time, I've broken down the tips into easy to read.
00:31:00 Dr Cristina Cavezza
Chunks that you can begin implementing straight away. You can get your free copy now by signing up at my website, fiercekindmama.com.
00:31:10 Dr Cristina Cavezza
And I've been sitting here listening to you and people obviously can't see me right now, but I've just been nodding along and soaking up everything that you've been saying because.
00:31:19 Dr Cristina Cavezza
Your story and your experience, I mean, it's remarkable. There's so many twists and turns and what happened. And of course, people were listening to this will say how wonderful it is.
00:31:28 Dr Cristina Cavezza
That your babies
00:31:28 Dr Cristina Cavezza
Survived and everyone's OK, but there's obviously this legacy right that that experience has left on you and how much it has changed you and guided I guess the.
00:31:39 Dr Cristina Cavezza
Direction that you now have gone in terms.
00:31:42 Dr Cristina Cavezza
Of your career.
00:31:43 Alex Weehuizen
I've grown up with a.
00:31:44 Alex Weehuizen
Very fierce, mother. I guess my mother is very academic and she's very clever and.
00:31:50 Alex Weehuizen
She always would say.
00:31:51 Alex Weehuizen
Things to me, like things like God never wastes the situation and.
00:31:57 Alex Weehuizen
So whenever I have.
00:31:59 Alex Weehuizen
A challenge in my life, but I.
00:32:00 Alex Weehuizen
Always think this is not going to be wasted.
00:32:04 Alex Weehuizen
Like I knew at some point my experiences perinatally and my experiences as a nanny and an early childhood teacher, was somehow gonna.
00:32:16 Alex Weehuizen
Marry up and I knew.
00:32:17 Alex Weehuizen
That probably when my.
00:32:19 Alex Weehuizen
Kids were about 3 and a.
00:32:20 Alex Weehuizen
Half, but I didn't know.
00:32:21 Alex Weehuizen
How at that point.
00:32:23 Alex Weehuizen
And I saw something on Instagram recently, a lady talking about how they think matrescence and that early postpartum actually finishes at around 7:00. Once the mother mothers will actually get a lot of clarity and the fog lifts.
00:32:37 Alex Weehuizen
And I was.
00:32:38 Alex Weehuizen
Watching that going oh.
00:32:39 Alex Weehuizen
My gosh, that was me like.
00:32:41 Alex Weehuizen
It was closer to probably 6 1/2.
00:32:43 Alex Weehuizen
Seven and when
00:32:44 Alex Weehuizen
I really had a very a strong understanding.
00:32:47 Alex Weehuizen
About what I wanted.
00:32:48 Alex Weehuizen
To do and how I wanted to support parents and.
00:32:52 Alex Weehuizen
It has come with, you know, a bit of imposter syndrome here and there, and I just push it aside now because of, like, I think where there's a will, there's a way. And I think experiences and both professionally and personally have come to a kind of a beautiful.
00:33:08 Alex Weehuizen
Kind of marriage together.
00:33:10 Alex Weehuizen
So yeah, I feel very.
00:33:11 Alex Weehuizen
Thankful that I've been able to create Precious.
00:33:14 Alex Weehuizen
Beginnings, which is
00:33:15 Alex Weehuizen
The 10 week programme, which I run here in Wanaka and I think so.
00:33:19 Alex Weehuizen
Far we've had.
00:33:19 Alex Weehuizen
About 150 families through the programme.
00:33:23 Alex Weehuizen
So yeah, so.
00:33:24 Alex Weehuizen
That's really amazing. And now really focusing on my private practise as well. We're working with parents one-on-one and also like running the circle of security parenting programme.
00:33:35 Alex Weehuizen
I absolutely love running those programmes because it's just such a great place to have really great conversations, honest and authentic conversations with parents. I was talking with a parent recently and she said, I never voiced some of these things before. I've never really voiced that. I don't always like being a mum.
00:33:56 Alex Weehuizen
Yeah, so it's.
00:33:56 Alex Weehuizen
Just a really.
00:33:57 Alex Weehuizen
It's interesting that obviously lots of challenges and.
00:34:01 Alex Weehuizen
I will assume.
00:34:02 Alex Weehuizen
Going forth in my parenting journey, there will be more and more challenges.
00:34:05 Alex Weehuizen
Andso I'm thankful that now I'm in a position that when I encounter a challenge which I have recently bringing with my children, that I know how to articulate those. Now, I know that people within myself, but to seek out support.
00:34:21 Dr Cristina Cavezza
Yes. Yeah. And I think that that's one of the themes that I feel like has been really highlighted in your message today is the power of words and conversations. And you know, you spoke about that a few times and that.
00:34:34 Dr Cristina Cavezza
That helped you in your journey when people said certain things, but also the fact that opening up and speaking about the challenges has been really helpful. And now you've turned that into you've parlayed that, so to speak, into a profession in helping other parents.
00:34:51 Alex Weehuizen
Mm-hmm. There's only one time in my perinatal experience. I actually remember somebody having a conversation with me, like a genuine conversation.
00:35:01 Alex Weehuizen
And at the time, I wasn't ready to have that conversation because I was.
00:35:06 Alex Weehuizen
Like what? Like.
00:35:07 Alex Weehuizen
What are they talking about? Like, do they think there's?
00:35:09 Alex Weehuizen
Something wrong with me? There's nothing wrong.
00:35:11 Alex Weehuizen
With me, I'm.
00:35:12 Alex Weehuizen
Fine. And I pushed that conversation aside, and upon reflection, I've realised that we can't just have one conversation.
00:35:21 Alex Weehuizen
It's not just on our medical team.
00:35:23 Alex Weehuizen
Or our midwife, or our nurse, or it's on our entire culture from every aspect in our lives to be having those conversations, to have friends and families and sisters and brothers, to initiate conversations with people who are struggling to normalise it. So you know, I think it was.
00:35:43 Alex Weehuizen
Until I had probably. Maybe.
00:35:44 Alex Weehuizen
10 conversations. Then I realised ohh, this is actually something that people should be talking about.
00:35:50 Dr Cristina Cavezza
Yeah, yeah, I love that. I totally agree with everything you're saying there. And I wonder with your experience.
00:35:55 Dr Cristina Cavezza
What would you maybe if we end the conversation talking about about this, which is around, what advice would you give other multiple birth parents on their journey? You know, some of the lessons that you've learned that might help people along the way?
00:35:55 Alex Weehuizen
Right.
00:36:11 Alex Weehuizen
Well, I went into my twin pregnancy like oh.
00:36:15 Alex Weehuizen
My gosh, I'm having twins. Like what?
00:36:18 Alex Weehuizen
And soon it moved into like ohh I'm so excited I get to raise two babies like this is.
00:36:25 Alex Weehuizen
Gonna be cool.
00:36:26 Alex Weehuizen
And first I would say feel the excitement. Life is full of worries, you know, like we can get really fixated on the little things like what kind of push
00:36:37 Alex Weehuizen
Chair. You're gonna get and.
00:36:39 Alex Weehuizen
Like will you have enough clothes and all these things.
00:36:42 Alex Weehuizen
And sometimes that can dull our excitement.
00:36:45 Alex Weehuizen
For actually these little people.
00:36:47 Alex Weehuizen
I think it's such to be focused on that. It's such an honour to.
00:36:50 Alex Weehuizen
Be somebody's parent.
00:36:51 Alex Weehuizen
But there is. I just think it's.
00:36:53 Alex Weehuizen
So cool.
00:36:54 Alex Weehuizen
I mean I, you know, I love being a mum.
00:36:56 Alex Weehuizen
If you are.
00:36:57 Alex Weehuizen
Experiencing the worry. Get it out. You know, like find that support. It's not on you to fix and find a remedy for everything.
00:37:08 Alex Weehuizen
A lot of.
00:37:08 Alex Weehuizen
The times when I felt worry or I felt like I.
00:37:14 Alex Weehuizen
Needed to find solutions for things.
00:37:16 Alex Weehuizen
I didn't seek support from my husband. I didn't seek support from my family, so I would encourage anyone to organise your support before your children arrive, plan for the worse, overplan your support.
00:37:32 Alex Weehuizen
Because you can literally never have too much support, I don't believe. And it's not just the first two weeks, right? First two weeks of post partum. And I mean there's a lot to navigate and babies are fairly sleeping and things, but they wake up and you know, they can become colicky and they can have they go through leaps and developmental.
00:37:53 Alex Weehuizen
Changes and that can be really challenging and.
00:37:56 Alex Weehuizen
So we really.
00:37:56 Alex Weehuizen
Need to be planning long term support. Who can you seek out when you need support? Who are those people in your lives that you can bring in at any time of?
00:38:06 Alex Weehuizen
Day that can help you. And if you don't have those people, how can we organise support? Which organisations do we need to reach out to?
00:38:16 Alex Weehuizen
To ensure that we are surrounded in support, I believe that raising children is a community responsibility. I think you know.
00:38:26 Alex Weehuizen
We've internalised it as parents to be our problem, but actually it's a community thing and so I just would encourage parents not to feel embarrassed to ask for help.
00:38:38 Alex Weehuizen
I mean, I was doing a postpartum plan for a family a few months back and we were organising a meal train and I said great. Can you give me the contact details for your work mates and she
00:38:52 Alex Weehuizen
Said Oh no.
00:38:52 Alex Weehuizen
I don't know them very well, so I'm not.
00:38:54 Alex Weehuizen
Gonna put them on the meal train.
00:38:56 Alex Weehuizen
And I said really?
00:38:58 Alex Weehuizen
I know you probably think that they're not your.
00:39:00 Alex Weehuizen
close friends.
00:39:02 Alex Weehuizen
But I bet you so many of them would love to put their name down to deliver you a meal. And you know what they did?
00:39:09 Alex Weehuizen
And so we need to be aware that there are so many people out there that might be able to help in a little way that.
00:39:16 Alex Weehuizen
Makes a big difference.
00:39:17 Dr Cristina Cavezza
Yeah, yeah, that's a great tip. And I think you know, as you were speaking, I was thinking about, we don't know what we don't know, right? So we don't know what we need to prepare and plan for. And a lot of people that I meet anyway who are having, especially those who are having.
00:39:31 Dr Cristina Cavezza
Multiples will spend a lot of time researching and maybe what
00:39:35 Dr Cristina Cavezza
Equipment they might.
00:39:36 Dr Cristina Cavezza
Need and whether you know should I have bassinets or put them in cots straight away? Should I get the double pram? The one that's side by side the, you know, all of those kind of practical things, right? But I always tell people that what we're kind of overlooking is what you really need to prepare.
00:39:43 Alex Weehuizen
Yeah, yeah.
00:39:52 Dr Cristina Cavezza
And there's a lot.
00:39:53 Dr Cristina Cavezza
Of work that can be done.
00:39:54 Dr Cristina Cavezza
Before the babies arrive to actually prepare emotionally for that journey, yeah.
00:39:58 Alex Weehuizen
Yeah. And I would.
00:39:59 Alex Weehuizen
Say touching on that it.
00:40:00 Alex Weehuizen
You cannot underestimate the power of friendship with other multiple parents. Raising multiples is very, very different from singletons, and I've got lots of wonderful friends that have multiples now.
00:40:16 Alex Weehuizen
And we have this understanding of each other.
00:40:20 Alex Weehuizen
Because, you know, navigating like the transition.
00:40:23 Alex Weehuizen
From cot to.
00:40:24 Alex Weehuizen
Bid with toddlers is so hard, like the Twin Escalation syndrome is a real thing and the advice I got from my friends with singletons was well meaning advice just didn't work for my twins.
00:40:37 Alex Weehuizen
And advice that I had got from experienced twin parents was so invaluable and so I would say connect with your.
00:40:45 Alex Weehuizen
Multiple birth clubs.
00:40:47 Alex Weehuizen
Because there is just a wealth of information there and people know exactly where you've been, they know your pressure points and situation.
00:40:56 Alex Weehuizen
And yeah, so I would say totally connect with multiple birth clubs and find friends because I had such wonderful twin mum friends now and I'm so.
00:41:06 Alex Weehuizen
Thankful for them.
00:41:07 Dr Cristina Cavezza
Yeah, that's great advice. And absolutely and connecting with people who really, truly understand the struggles and the demands of raising multiples can be huge.
00:41:15 Dr Cristina Cavezza
Thank you so much Alex for today. I know we could go on and keep talking. I just, I love talking with.
00:41:21 Dr Cristina Cavezza
You and hearing.
00:41:22 Dr Cristina Cavezza
All of your wisdom. It's been wonderful. Thank you so much.
00:41:25 Alex Weehuizen
Thank you for having me here, it's great.
00:41:29 Dr Cristina Cavezza
Thanks for listening to today's episode. If you like what you've heard, then please follow and leave a review so that other expectant and current parents of multiples like yourself can find this podcast and the valuable information it contains.
00:41:41 Dr Cristina Cavezza
I'd be so very grateful if you left a review and shared this with anyone you think could benefit from listening. If you have a particular topic you'd like me to cover on this podcast, feel free to reach out to me via my website. www.fiercekindmama.com New episodes are released every second Wednesday, so see you back here real soon.
00:42:02 Dr Cristina Cavezza
Any advice and information in this podcast is general only and has been prepared without taking into account your particular circumstances and needs. For tailored, individualised advice, please consult
00:42:16 Dr Cristina Cavezza
With a qualified professional.
