Target Demographic

We had our Parenting Multiples class yesterday at a local center called Isis Maternity. I’ve known about this center for a while (and, by a while, I mean about a year and a half before I got pregnant. I tend to get a little ahead of the game.), and I was looking forward to taking my first class with them. They also have a lot of mom and baby groups and other things, as well as a great store full of pregnancy and baby items.

The class was taught by a mom of triplets. Her boys are now 13, two identical and one fraternal. I was excited to get a lot of practical advice. After the three-hour class, though, I was a little disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, I think our teacher did a perfectly nice job. She was clearly trying to cover a lot of subjects in a short period of time, and we each got a big binder full of articles and suggested reading. But I think my husband said it best: “you are not the right person to go to these classes. By the time you actually get to the class, you’ve done so much reading that none of it is new information!”

I think the person who probably got the most out of the class was a woman named Ivana who, at 35 weeks pregnant, had only learned three weeks earlier that she was having identical girls. Wow! Now that’s some last-minute cramming. She had maybe 4-5 weeks between discovering her multiples and her scheduled c-section. I, on the other hand, have known I’m having twins for nineteen weeks now. I’ve read several books, I’m on message boards with other twin moms every day. I suppose it’s hard to know how I compare to the “regular” population, but I feel like I’ve already done what most people in my situation would do. I’ve tried to get as much information as I possibly can. But because of that, this class was much less useful.

I think it could have been improved (at least, for what I was hoping for) in a few ways. I would have liked more practical tips and demonstrations. “So, how do you pick them both up?” “How do you get them both into the car?” “How do you get them both latched on at the same time for tandem breastfeeding?” It would have been extra nice to see/meet some actual infant twins and their moms. This is not to say that I think our teacher wasn’t a wealth of information, because I do. But I think she was trying to make the class somewhat comprehensive, which made it more of an introduction. I suppose my version would have run the risk of being too much of a hodgepodge of small pieces of information, but I feel like that’s what I’m missing/wanting right now. “Show me how I’m really going to do this.”

On the other hand, I think one benefit is that I feel a little validated that I’m indeed preparing myself as best as I can. There’s really only so much you can learn or figure out ahead of time. I’ve got a lot of the theory, I’m just waiting to try to put it into practice.

Our next class is not for another month, which is the hospital-run “Prepared Childbirth” class. I debated whether to take the hospital course, or to go back to Isis for their “Multiples Childbirth” class. I talked to my OB, who knew another twin mom who took that class, and the verdict was that both classes would be found lacking in some ways. So I decided to go for the hospital class because it’s actually at the place I hope to deliver, and I might even meet some other moms-to-be that live near me. A couple of weeks after that is the breastfeeding class. Hopefully that one will be a little more useful. Unless I get a new book in the meantime.

Though it’s hard for me to imagine how you wouldn’t do as much reading as I do, I suppose my perspective might be skewed. I’m probably not really the target demographic for some of these classes…