ABSTRACT
In my role as the author of this chapter, I would like to be a voice for the parents who are asking for help from medical professionals as they seek to realize the best possible outcomes of their multiple-gestation, high-risk pregnancies. I speak from personal experience, having given birth to triplets born at 29 weeks’ gestation over 21 years ago, as well as from contact with and the detailed medical questionnaires from approximately 1500 expectant parents of multiple births each year (more than 30 000 since 1983). Our detailed medical questionnaires are completed by members and are sent to The Triplet Connection, the largest organization of its kind in the world. From this ‘bird’s-eye’ perspective, I try to keep abreast of what is going on in the medical field of obstetrics concerning multiple births, as well as to read and hear comments and perspectives from thousands of women for whom I act as a quasispokesperson. I know of their fears, their need for knowledge and involvement, their sensitivity and need for compassionate and expert care, and of their desire to have healthy outcomes as well as adequate support and resources during pregnancy and afterward. From the beginning of pregnancy to the care of their multiple-birth offspring, these women desperately need the understanding and positive support of those who will guide them through one of the most emotionally charged and physically challenging experiences they will ever undergo.
