Breastfeeding your children is a wonderful thing, for so many reasons. If you’re planning to breastfeed your twins, even part of the time, that’s awesome! You may be considering trying tandem nursing your twins, just as I was when I was pregnant with mine. There are some really great things about breastfeeding twins together, and also some not so great things. I am sharing my experience with it in the hopes that it can help set you up for success with nursing your twins!
I truly enjoyed breastfeeding my older daughter, which I did almost exclusively for over a year. Naturally, as someone who had a good experience with nursing, I expected to be able to breastfeed my twins exclusively as well.
It wasn’t until the twins were almost here that I started to think about the logistics of it. How would I manage to feed both babies, especially the times when I was on my own with them? Would I pump and feed one or both of them a bottle? Would I nurse them separately, or would it be easier to breastfeed twins at the same time – aka, tandem nursing?
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Tandem Nursing Twins Sounded Promising
As I dug a little into my research, I kept reading about tandem nursing. The benefits sounded great. I would save time by breastfeeding both babies together. It would be such a special experience nursing my twins at the same time. It seemed to be a given that a twin mom who wanted to breastfeed would be tandem nursing her twins.
I assumed I would have some help with this in the hospital, but unfortunately, one of my twins was sent to the NICU before I had a chance to try. Perhaps starting off nursing them both separately has something to do with why I don’t like tandem nursing that much. Even though I got a lot of support from the nursing staff and lactation consultants when feeding them individually, it was more than two weeks before my twins were reunited and I was able to first try breastfeeding them together.
My advice to new moms of twins is this – if you are lucky enough to have your babies in the same place, be it in your hospital room or in the NICU – ask for help from a lactation consultant right away! Getting off to a good start nursing your twins will set you up for success down the road, whether you end up preferring tandem nursing your twins or breastfeeding them separately (or a little of both).
Even though I started off breastfeeding my twins separately (based purely on logistics), I didn’t think I had any other options than tandem nursing once we got home. Whenever I pictured breastfeeding twins, images of two babies latched on to mom, one on each side in a football hold, are what popped into my head.
Did I mention I never liked the football hold?
Sometimes I Think I’m Just Lazy
The more I write about parenting, the more I am beginning to think I must be a really lazy person. I even wrote a post about being a lazy mom – you can check it out here. Take nursing pillows, for instance. Not twin nursing pillows, just your everyday Boppy pillow. Did I have this for my older daughter? No. I did have another, less popular brand. Did I use it for nursing? You guessed it. Nope. It did make a nice place to prop my baby up though until she outgrew it.
In the hospital (especially when my son was in the NICU) they are always coming at you with that Boppy pillow whenever they get the idea that you might want to nurse, or even hold, your baby. I always shoved that thing away. I do not need to set myself up with all sorts of accessories to be able to breastfeed. In fact, if that kind of set up was actually required, it would make nursing much less appealing to me. But I know other moms are different. I’m rather anxious by nature, so sitting and relaxing for long periods of time isn’t my favorite thing.
How I like to nurse my babies? Whenever they are hungry, wherever we happen to be. Nursing on demand is part of the attachment parenting style that we did our best to practice. I do not plan ahead for this. Baby is hungry, out comes the boob and I feed them. No special nursing clothes (although for the entire nursing stage I do tend to wear tops that provide easy access to nurse), no special pillow. I prefer to just cradle baby in my arms and pop the nipple in their mouth.
Nursing one baby like this is pretty easy, once you get the whole latch thing figured out. If I need to get up to grab something, I can nurse my baby while I walk. I can do it while working at the computer. I can do it while reading my daughter a book, playing a game, answering emails, and so many other things. I can even allow myself to sit back and relax once in awhile and just enjoy breastfeeding my baby.
For more on newborn twins, check out my post Caring for Newborn Twins – the Ultimate Guide.
What’s Good About Tandem Nursing Twins
You’ve probably gathered by now that I’m not a huge fan of tandem nursing. Still, it has it’s place. And if you’re having twins and you plan to breastfeed them, I suggest you give it a try and get some practice with it. Even if it doesn’t end up being your main way of nursing your twins, there are going to be times that both babies are hungry and you don’t have any other option. It’s definitely an important skill to have in your bag of tricks as a new twin mom.
So what are the pros of tandem nursing twins?
- Helps keep babies on a schedule. While I am not a schedule person, I know many twin moms swear by having their twins on a schedule. If that is something you want to do, tandem nursing will help with that.
- You spend less time overall breastfeeding
- The experience of nursing both babies together can be very special
- It can be relaxing if you get yourself set up right and have someone there to help
- You won’t walk around with lopsided boobs because your baby only drained one side (I mean this in all seriousness)
- You won’t have to worry about leakage on the non-nursing side – potentially wasting precious drops of liquid gold. Although they do make something called a Haakaa to address this issue.
- If they are both hungry at the same time, you won’t have to make one twin wait or take a bottle while the other twin nurses
I know that list isn’t very long, but they are powerful things! Especially the second item. Breastfeeding takes a lot of time out of your day. Having twins, that time can be doubled if you don’t tandem nurse at least some of the time.
What’s Not so Good About Tandem Breastfeeding Twins
Although I do admit, as a twin mom, you can’t ditch tandem nursing entirely – I try to avoid it as much as possible.
Here are the reasons I don’t like it so much
- Less freedom of movement. Getting set up to tandem breastfeed twins takes some effort, and once you have both babies settled and latched, you’ll be stuck in that position until they are done
- Less one on one time with each twin
- Very difficult to do alone (although this is often when it is most necessary). This does get easier once they get bigger and are able to get themselves latched without your help.
- I feel kind of like a pig at the county fair with a baby dangling off each breast
- Feeding them together on purpose gets them on the same schedule which is something I want to avoid
- If you’re not tandem nursing all the time, you might not have enough milk to satisfy both babies at one feeding and may need to give them both a bottle after. This happened to me a lot even when I was trying to tandem nurse my twins around the clock. This ended up making each feeding take a long time.
Breastfeeding Twins is Hard
There are many things that make being a twin parent hard. I wrote a separate post about it which you can check out here. Nursing is so important, but nursing twins can be challenging. So while I don’t tend to enjoy tandem nursing, I have learned how to do it.
Sometimes, against my best intentions, I end up needing to breastfeed my twins at the same time. If I start nursing one twin and the other wakes up hungry, I’m not about to just let them cry. So I grab them and get them latched too, no matter the awkward position I might find myself in. In those moments, I don’t have time to grab that nursing pillow, stool, whatever other accessories and set myself up on the couch. I make it work, even if my back is close to breaking and my arms are ready to fall off. That’s what being a mom is like a lot of the time, especially with twins.
Being a twin mom can be tough, especially when it comes to nursing twins. Even with all the advice out there, there are going to be so many things you have to figure out as you go. Remember not to be hard on yourself. Life has a way of getting in the way of your best laid plans, and that’s ok! Whatever you decide for your baby is the right decision.
Good luck nursing! You’ve got this!
