If there’s a breastfeeding twins authority out there, it isn’t me. No, I’m just a mom who’s had two tiny humans attached to her around the clock for 17 months. And long before that, it was a tiny human for 28 months, then another for 20 months, then a third for 23 months.

I’ve been nursing every. single. day. for seven and a half years, minus 100 days before my middle child was born when my daughter self-weaned. I’ve nursed babies, I’ve nursed toddlers, I’ve tandem nursed a baby and a toddler, I’ve tandem nursed babies, I’ve tandem nursed toddlers, and I have tandem nursed twin newborns AND a toddler.

That, my friends, did not last long. One week, to be exact, until shortly after my milk came in and then my toddler decided he was uninterested, but it was the beginning of our no-end-in-sight breastfeeding journey with twins. Today, we are at 17 months and going strong.

People are super weirded out by breastfeeding twins.

Like if you have twins you should really be feeding them bottles, or nursing them one at a time, or only breastfeeding in the comfort of your own house, unless said people are there, and then you had better pretend like these babies eat some other way than from you. Nursing babies at the same time? Gross.

On top of people being completely weirded out by you, nursing twins goes against the norm. According to the International Breastfeeding Journal, “the breastfeeding initiation rate for twins ranges from 38 to 80%, and the rate of any breastfeeding at 6 months from 10 to 50%, with 8-22% of twins breastfeeding exclusively.”

There’s simply not many examples of breastfeeding twin moms out there, and even fewer resources to help the ones who try.

With that being said, maybe my non-IBCLC self will be able to offer some helpful tips for those of you embarking on this adventure.

Begin by throwing out what you know about nursing because while the background may help you, you need to have entirely different expectations. You can’t hold twins the same way, you can’t nurse your twins while you stir dinner, bed sharing is different (more on that in my next post), nursing in public is entirely a palaver, and it’s virtually impossible to only nurse one baby at a time once your babies reach the age they can recognize when their twin is nursing.

Then your twins figure out how to control their hands and gone are the quiet, peaceful nursing sessions. No—you are now the innocent bystander caught in the crossfire of a WWE breastfeeding smackdown.

If it sounds like a lot, it’s because it is, but it is the most beautiful and fulfilling journey. Everything about twins is!

Here’s a starting point for your breastfeeding adventure. This is a how-to post, so while there are lots of ways to make this happen, this is how I did it when they were newborns:

1. Sit somewhere firm with your nursing pillow and extra pillows if needed. You want to make sure your nursing pillow is level and the ends aren’t drooping down, so prop the sides up with pillows if necessary. Have what you need within arm’s reach. Also, you don’t want to be sinking into a really deep sofa—this gets uncomfortable quickly and it’s hard to adjust yourself with two nursing babes. Choose a firm chair or a bed.
2. Pick up baby A and place her in the football hold, where her legs are pointed towards your back and her head is pointed towards your middle. Make sure your nursing pillow is supported enough that your baby’s body is level. Get baby A latched and then beware, because newborn babies roll off nursing pillows easily if you move to get baby B.
3. Have someone hand you baby B. It’s really difficult to bend over and pick up another baby without breaking the first baby’s latch or suffocating them. You can wait to latch baby A until both are situated but in my experience this often leads to an unhappy baby B who is smelling the milk but not yet eating. If you are by yourself, make sure baby B is positioned right next to you before latching baby A. If he is on same surface as you (like next to you in bed) it’s so much easier to pick him up than if he is in a swing on the floor.
4. Place baby B in the football hold on the opposite side, with his legs pointed towards your back. The two tiny heads should be right next to each other at your front. Make sure baby B is level and get him latched.
5. Nurse them for as long as they need it. If one finishes, just leave them until both are done. If one seems uninterested, stroking their cheek can help them continue to suck.
6. When they’re done, put the babies down one at a time. If someone else is around, ask them to pick up one baby so you can move the second baby. Burp them one a time. If there is a reflux issue, burp the one with the worst reflux first or keep them upright (like in a baby bjorn bouncer) until you can burp them. You can also leave baby B latched while you burp the baby A, then put baby A down and burp baby B.
7. Next time you nurse them, switch which side they’re on to keep both breasts equally stimulated and milk supply even. You can also switch daily if that’s easier to remember. A hairband switched back on forth on your wrists can help you keep track.
8. I am a big supporter of bed sharing and nursing in the side lying position but it was tricky with newborn twins. This is a topic for my next post. For the first few weeks with my twins, I woke up and set up all my pillows and nursing pillow in bed and nursed them the way I shared above. I didn’t move into side lying nursing for some time.
   *note: the picture at the top of my twins nursing is immediately postpartum and in a different position, and it was fine but I couldn’t maneuver them at all on my own in this position, plus it was tricky to keep them from slipping down. Keeping them level is a hundred times easier.
   

Now let’s get on to some helpful tips:

1. Double football hold for the (t)win!
   There’s lots of “holds” out there for nursing twins and I tried them all. The only one that consistently worked was the double football hold; all the other ones ended up with an angry squished twin, a slipping baby, or a painfully elastic boob.
2. Get a nursing pillow.
   I was resistant to a nursing pillow through five years of nursing. I didn’t need it and I didn’t want the extra stuff, but with twins I couldn’t avoid it any longer—there’s no other easy way to accomplish the double football hold. The Twin Z is a twin mom favorite and there are others out there, but I don’t recommend them because of the toxic chemicals they contain. The only one I can recommend, because it’s the only one I’ve personally used, is the Holy Lamb Organics nursing pillow. It is the same shape as a Boppy but it is much more firm and will support tiny twins well. It was expensive but to me the extra cost of a non-toxic nursing pillow was worth it because of the huge amount of time my tiny, precious babies spent on it. The organic cotton Boppy covers fit (and are adorable!) so there was no need to buy an expensive cover through Holy Organics.
3. Get set up ahead of time.
   Make sure everything is within arm’s reach because you can’t just stand up and walk into the kitchen to grab your water when you have two babies attached to you.
4. Have help at the beginning.
   The biggest reason is that it’s hard to maneuver two babies and adjust yourself when one or both are attached to you. You’ll still be recovering from pushing two human beings out of a donut and you’ll be sore and in the midst of quite a learning curve with twins. An extra set of hands helps.
5. Figure out a plan.
   By a plan I mean a schedule, sort of. If you nurse both babies separately and on demand, you might end up literally nursing around the clock. Maybe this is fine with you but I have three older kids and neither my body nor my mind could handle this. All of my babies have naturally gravitated towards nursing every three hours so this is what I aim for, and then I focus on making sure they get a full feeding so they’re not hungry again for 3 hours-ish. Aside from a couple days of hardcore cluster feeding when they’re about a week old, this has worked pretty consistently for us, and if this doesn’t work for your family, then find something else that does–it just really helps to have a plan. Are you going to feed both babies at the same time or one at a time? If you feed them one at a time will you feed one directly after the other? Are you going to wake them up overnight to feed them? I feed my babies at least every three hours during the day and make sure they get full feedings every time and then I’m confident they’re well fed so I let them just wake when they’re hungry at night. With twins the added question is if one wakes up hungry will you wake the other up to nurse too? You should do this however works for you and it will probably take some experimenting–just know if you wing it, breastfeeding is far more likely to take over your life.
   *I hope this goes without saying–this schedule-sort-of I speak of is absolutely not restrictive. Any schedule that restricts a baby from eating is not good, and this is more true the smaller they are. You cannot breastfeed a baby too much and you cannot spoil a baby. Always feed your babies if they are hungry!!!!*
6. Focus on quality of snacks and drinks.
   Plain water doesn’t hydrate you the way mineral rich drinks do. You can add minerals to your water (I did a 1/2tsp of Redmond’s real salt, dash of maple syrup and lemon juice) or drink bone broth, coconut water, or raw milk. Have easy, nourishing snacks ready to eat in the middle of the night when you’re starving and your husband is sleeping. Good snack examples: cottage cheese, grass fed cheese, yogurt, sourdough with lots of grass fed butter, muffins (not the ones that are basically cake though, these cranberry orange ones are my favorite), beef jerky, seasonal fruit and a handful of nuts, homemade granola.
7. If you’re by yourself, nurse in bed.
   It’s really tricky to pick up a newborn baby out of a swing or off the floor when you’re in a chair with another newborn baby already latched, because you don’t have the mobility to bend without suffocating baby A. When you’re in bed and baby B is on the same surface as you, picking him up isn’t difficult. My biggest challenge to nursing newborn twins was always how to move them when I couldn’t reach them properly, but being on a bed solves this issue. Sofas are also an option but often times they are quite plush and I needed a firm surface to be comfortable while nursing.
8. Feed yourself well.
   It takes a lot of calories to produce enough milk for twins. Eat tons of protein, tons of healthy fats, and tons of calories. Drink a ton of non-sugary drinks. You need enough nutrition to feed two growing babies and yourself. I was eating 3000-4000 calories a day or more and lost weight doing it because your body needs so much fuel. Breastfeeding twins is really hard, but I think a big reason many women have quit completely by 6 months is that they can’t produce enough milk because they’re not getting the nutrition they need.
9. Maintain good posture.
   Don’t slump your shoulder, keep your back straight, and don’t hunch your neck. You will be spending way too much time in this position to have poor posture–in the long term, you’ll be very sore. Being in a very slightly reclined chair will help you not hunch.
10. Watch their hands.
    Once they realize that they have control of their appendages they’ll start clawing at you so beware, but that’s not what I mean. You want your twins to get enough to eat and there’s a helpful way to know when they’re full: when their tiny fists are clenched, it’s a sign they’re hungry. When their hands relax and fall open, it’s a sign they’re satisfied. Also, if you wiggle your finger against their cheek, right on the corner of their mouth, and they start rooting on your finger, they probably want to nurse more—this works for me even when my babies are sleeping. If you wiggle and they don’t respond at all, it’s another sign they’re satisfied. Stroking their cheek when they are on the breast if they stop suckling will also help them start suckling again.
11. Get a good armchair.
    The right armchair is a couple of things: Firm– you need support. Leather– so much easier to wipe up messes. Arms– you can use these to prop up your nursing pillow to keep your twins level. Comfortable– duh. First bonus, it’s got an open gap between the back and seat- this will stop messes from collecting in the crack between the back and seat, which gets really gross really fast. Second bonus, it’s slightly reclined- you want to be upright but if it’s just slightly reclined it’s much easier to fall asleep in. I have an Eames chair and it’s absolutely perfect! My husband got ours (a reproduction) for $600 and it is so practical, so beautiful, and worth every penny.
12. Keep your schedule open.
    I’m not saying do nothing, although rest is more valuable than I can possibly say, I just mean don’t jam pack every moment of your day with activities out of the house. Nursing twins on the go is very challenging, and the only way I’ve been able to consistently do it with good results is nursing them one at a time, which is fine, but it takes twice the time. You’ll find success much more easily if you stay somewhere you’re comfortable.
13. Learn to nurse in a carrier.
    I used two carriers for my twins- a Minimonkey twin carrier and a ring sling. There’s so much to say on this topic it deserves a post of it’s own so I’ll try to keep it simple and the simple is this: if you can figure out how to breastfeed in a carrier it will change your life. I could nurse both twins at the same time in the minimonkey when they were newborns because their heads sat at just the right height. I’d wear a nursing shirt (the only time I ever worse special nursing clothes) so I’d have coverage on the top and the bottom because I didn’t use a cover, and no one was ever any the wiser. No need to adjust their position in this carrier, just turn their heads towards you and move your clothing out of the way–it’s a tad awkward but no price can be put on the ability to tandem nurse with mobility. Ring slings are very convenient for nursing too, but you can only nurse one baby at a time. Just loosen the sling, tip baby to the side, and you can use the tail as a cover if you want to. Here’s a helpful video on nursing in a ring sling.
14. Get them checked for ties.
    Ties are basically a tissue connection between parts of the mouth that restrict proper movement, such as suckling which is essential to breastfeeding, and there are three types of ties- tongue, lip, and cheek. Ties will affect how any baby can breastfeed, so this isn’t exclusive to twins but still important to mention. Both twins had all three ties and it restricted how they could move their mouths and made it much harder to nurse, and we had their ties released at 23 days old. You can’t just go to any old dentist to get this done though. It’s so much more than I can explain but there is a very helpful Facebook group called Tongue Ties Baby Support Group that was a huge help to me.
15. Keep your expectations in check.
    This is not like nursing a singleton. You don’t have the same mobility, it’s more time consuming, and requires more energy, focus, and attention. Breastfeeding can be challenging in any situation but I never struggled with any of my singletons. Nursing twins is hard, and I don’t want to discourage anyone but if you go into it thinking it’s going to be easy you may be setting yourself up for some disillusionment.
16. Don’t fall prey to worry about your babies eating enough.
    One of the most cited reasons for quitting breastfeeding is that baby was not drinking enough. If your baby is having wet diapers and is gaining weight, your baby is getting enough milk. If you prioritize your own health and nutrition, your body will produce enough milk for twins. Don’t let anyone worry you into quitting, and if you’re genuinely concerned, supplement with pumped breast milk until your baby is gaining weight and wetting diapers consistently. There are many, many better ways to overcome this potential challenge than just quitting.
17. Get you husband involved and let him be needed.
    Make your goals clear, and let your husband know know that you need him to support, encourage, and help you. Along the way you will probably need to let him know if he is being supportive enough, too supportive, or trying to be supportive but not actually being helpful. Another way I involved my husband was telling him that doggone it I was going to do this, and he encouraged me every step of the way. I needed him to hold me accountable to my goals. Your husband can be involved in ways as small as him handing you babies, or you can ask him to prepare or bring you nutrient dense snacks, hand you water, adjust your pillows. Not breastfeeding related, but my husband got a Tactical Baby Gear carrier and would wear one twin and I’d wear the other in the ring sling, and it was great for bonding/involvement.
18. Just stay away from the haters.
    If you think people’s opinions on breastfeeding are wild, just wait until they see you breastfeeding two babies at once. The amount of people who think their negative opinion on how your babies are fed is helpful, or welcome, or relevant in any way is honestly shocking. One of my toxic traits is that I like stirring the pot so I really couldn’t care less what strangers think, but sometimes we have people in our lives who like to voice their negative opinions and it can be really discouraging. I’ve found that older people in particular tend to be shocked that you’d nurse two babies at one time, and it has nothing to do with indecent exposure because I use a nursing cover around most people. Breastfeeding twins is hard enough without you having to accommodate the reactions of others. It doesn’t mean you should act without care or consideration, but don’t let negative responses deter you. If it’s consistently a problem, maybe just take some space. Successful breastfeeding is a thousand times more important than accommodating someone’s judgement.
19. Be encouraged because it gets easier.
    I don’t know how long I spent nursing the twins when they were newborns, but it was probably around 6-8 hours a day. 17 months in, they nurse for half an hour in the morning and 10-15 minutes after both their naps and before bed. I don’t need pillows or to sit in a properly designed armchair, I can just plop down on the floor, sit one on each knee, and they can nurse sitting up. Nursing became much, much easier once they were old enough to latch themselves and even easier once they could sit up and nurse.
20. Bonus tip: homebirth!
    There are countless studies out there (Google will corroborate this) that correlate homebirth and successful breastfeeding. There are many variables in play here, but a few are that that golden hour and bonding are prioritized and you are given space and privacy. You are safe and comfortable in your own bed. Nobody is poking and prodding and moving you and mainly, no one is trying to take your baby away from you! Homebirth is an incredible way to set yourself up not only for the twin birth you want (read about my accidental unassisted twin homebirth here) but also for breastfeeding success. 10/10 recommend!

Every morning, I wake up to my twins chattering in the next room. If I wait long enough to get them, one typically starts hanging out the side of his bassinet and wailing and the other gazes out the window and waits patiently. People who know my twins, can you guess who does what?

When I open the door, their eyes light up. They raise their chubby baby arms and a chorus of mama, mama, mama fills the room. I pull them into bed with me, sunlight dancing through the trees, and they both lie their golden, curly heads on my chest and relax against me as they enjoy their morning elixir.

Eventually they perk up enough to start poking each other’s eyeballs and trying to roll of the bed while maintaining their latch and then the chaos begins, but the twenty minutes of snuggles I start each day with are so special.

I estimate I spent 1,260 hours nursing the twins in their first 6 months of life. In their second 6 months it was probably about 1,000 hours. In the five months since, I’m probably looking at more like 450 hours.

2,710 hours.

113 days.

16 weeks.

4 months.

1/3 of a year.

Can you even wrap your head around that?

4 months of nursing nonstop, literally around the clock, every single moment of every single day. What a commitment, what a travail, what a tedium.

4 months of snuggles, of stroking their sweet little heads, of their bright eyes gazing up at you in wonder.

What a service.

What an honor.

What an accomplishment.

I wish you could see the tears in my eyes as a montage of the most precious moments, the moments I couldn’t keep my eyes open at 3am, the moments I broke up a WWE smackdown, the moments the twins would grab each other’s hands and relax deeper into me swirl through my mind. Since becoming a mother, I’ve nursed babies for 2,523 days. Blood, tears, exhaustion, spit up, and time, so much time.

What a beautiful journey.

Dear friend, don’t be anxious about motherhood. About birthing twins, breastfeeding them, even just keeping them alive. All your babies want is you. All your babies need is you.

The journey is full of trials and blessings, nights you can’t sleep because of cluster feedings and nights you don’t want to sleep because you just want one more moment to breathe them in.

Beyond 12 months, I couldn’t find any studies about the breastfeeding rates for twins, indicating there’s probably not many moms out there doing it. I know there are some; I see them from time to time on social media, but it makes me sad to know most twins moms don’t get this connection past babyhood. I want to see the attitude about what twins moms can do from a holistic standpoint change. I want to see twins moms birthing at home and breastfeeding their babies for as long as they want to. I want twin moms to know what they are capable of.

It’s a journey, all of it, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Oh, and one last piece of advice:

Once you get to the WWE smackdown stage, a cutting board between the cleavage works wonders.

You’ve got this.