Here’s a question from Fernando. He asks, “How do you start stimulating the twins while they’re still in mother’s belly? Do you have any tips regarding this subject?”
So Fernando, a lot of the tips and ideas out there for stimulating unborn twins is the same as you would find with the singleton pregnancy. It can be hard to target one baby over the other while they are in utero.
Sounds for Unborn Twins
So for example, music, plain classical music, or talking to your wife’s belly will really benefit both babies. And I’m not sure why you’d want to benefit one baby and not the other. Talking to your wife’s belly is going to be able to benefit both the babies at the same time.
Talking to babies is great so they can recognize your voice, even though it’s going to be muffled inside and it’s going to sound different when they come out.
Another thing that you can do is read aloud to your twins. If you can find books that you like or books you’re going to read to your twins when they’re babies, you can read those aloud while they’re still in utero.
Touching Twins through Mom’s Belly
Another thing that you can do is touch the babies through mom’s stomach. So particularly as your babies grow inside toward the end of the twin pregnancy, you’re going to be able to feel a lot of their movement of their arms and their legs as they twist and turn around.
You should be able to touch and feel through mom’s stomach the individual twins. And that’s one way that you can help stimulate them and know that you’re out there.
In the later stages of pregnancy, when you can feel where the babies are located, you might want to shift your point of speaking to your wife’s belly so you can kind of talk to baby A and baby B.
Help the Twins’ Mom
Another thing you can do to help is to reduce the Mom’s stress level. That will definitely help stimulate your unborn twins and help them be healthy. Of course, when Mom is under stress, it puts a lot of adverse chemicals in her bloodstream, which then will go into the twins.
So if you can keep Mom happy and healthy and reduce her stress level, particularly by stepping up and doing things around the home and helping prepare for the twins, it’s going to go a long way for helping your unborn twins develop in a healthy manner.
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In addition to that, of course, is keeping mom on a healthy diet so that she’s eating good foods full of good nutrition for her and for her babies. If you have heard good ideas that come up for singleton babies, try those as well with your twins, because they should work just as well.
This question was originally addressed on the Dad’s Guide to Twins Podcast Episode 47: Stimulating Twins During Pregnancy, Stopping Whining, Finding a Pediatrician.
Picture by Marie-Claire Camp