DOUBLE THE TROUBLE, TWO TIMES THE ... FUN
Some real-world multiples tips for Amal Clooney and Beyoncé
NEW YORK For a change, a few celebrities are chasing a trend rather than setting one — times two and three.
We’re talking about the mini boom in Hollywood of expected twins, with the recent arrival of triplets for Pharrell Williams and his wife, Helen Lasichanh, thrown in as a happy bonus.
Beyoncé and Jay Z, along with George and Amal Clooney, have announced they’re expecting twins. It’s news that one obstetrician who has delivered hundreds of multiples said often initially stuns anxious parents-to-be.
“When people are imagining a pregnancy, it’s usually a dream that involves just one baby,” said Dr. Roger B. Newman, a co-author of the recently updated guide, When You’re Expecting Twins, Triples or Quads: Proven Guidelines for a Healthy Multiple Pregnancy (William Morrow Paperbacks, 2017).
“To find out you’re carrying two almost always comes as a shock,” he said, “but the vast majority of people are thrilled by the process. It just takes a while to soak in.”
So who’s having all these multiples we hear so much about these days? And why?
Newman co-wrote the book, now available, with Barbara Luke, a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Michigan State University in East Lansing, and health journalist Tamara Eberlein. It points to the advent of infertility treatments several decades ago as a major factor in the rise in multiples. Other factors include women having children later in life. Biologically speaking, conceiving at 30 years of age or older makes women more likely to conceive multiples.
Helen Holden in Los Angeles was 36 when she became pregnant with boy-girl twins, now seven, through in vitro fertilization.
“I went back into the hospital when my twins were two weeks old, so we got a referral quickly for a nanny to help my husband out immediately,” she said. “Enlist family to help with things like grocery shopping and cleaning. My sister stayed with me for several weeks.”
In Ontario, parenting coach Debbie Fazio — with 16-year-old identical twin daughters and a 17-yearold — added: “Don’t expect to have every day perfect. Having twins is messy.”
Newman said the majority of twins are born prematurely, which adds a layer of medical complexity, and breastfeeding multiples makes the right kind of nutrition intensely important. The same is true during pregnancy, he said.
“There are many obstetricians and other care providers who don’t recognize the increased nutritional needs that women carrying twins have. They will tell them to just eat well or maybe add an extra five pounds, or just eat when you’re hungry. Women carrying multiples get all kinds of fairly inappropriate and non-scientific information,” he said.
The need for protein, for instance, goes up to about 175 grams a day for women carrying twins, Newman said.
The Clooneys (Amal is 39) and the Knowles-Carters (Beyoncé is 35) have released virtually no details about the pregnancies, though Beyoncé recently bowed out of performing at Coachella. Pharrell attended the Oscars with his producing partner rather than his wife and said on the red carpet of his family: “Everybody is good.”