Mothers of twins: emotional experiences during subacute postpartum

Abstract

The increased incidence of multiple births calls for attention to the different implications of twinning, including in motherhood. Mothers of twins are more concerned about becoming a mother and face challenges in investing spontaneously in their children as well as in establishing a psychic image of the babies before and after birth. Thesubacute postpartum period begins shortly after delivery, with the expulsion of the placenta, and lasts about ten days. It is part of the broader postpartum, the period of thepuerperal pregnancy cycle of varying durability according to the mother's organism and state, in which there may be emotional instabilities resulting from hormonal and psychicalterations. The study aimed investigating the emotional experiences of mothers of twins during the subacute puerperium. Using clinical-qualitative research, we interviewed seven women up to nine days after delivering twins at a teaching hospital. The interviews comprised questions related to pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum, and mother-twins relationship. Content analysis of the data resulted in six categories of themes: discovery of twin pregnancy, emotional experiences during pregnancy, perceptions about childbirth, choice of babies' names, emotional experiences in caring for babies, and emotional experiences and expectations regarding breastfeeding, which were analyzed based on psychoanalysis.