Eating for Three

When you are pregnant with twins, it’s an understatement to say your body is working overtime. The extra muscle, tissue and blood needed to create two healthy babies are draining on the mom. It’s not surprising that gestational diabetes, anemia and preeclampsia (caused by elevated blood pressure) are all risks for pregnant moms of multiples, causing many women to deliver under- weight babies prematurely.

Until recently, however, doctors and nutritionists treated all pregnant women the same. But research shows that women creating twins need a different nutritional approach and pattern of weight gain to better take care of themselves and to deliver healthy babies close to term.

Barbara Luke, ScD, M.P.H., R.D., has revolutionized the way doctors around the globe treat pregnant women of multiples. Her research, outlined in her best- selling book When You're Expecting Twins, Triplets, or Quads: Proven Guidelines for a Healthy Multiple Pregnancy, is now the standard that many obstetricians follow.

The current professor of nursing at the University of Miami has made many discoveries in her thirty years in the field (www.drbarbaraluke.com). For instance, Luke has shown that elevated sugar levels increases a woman’s chances of contracting infections–something women expecting multiples can’t risk.

“Typically at twenty eight weeks (of pregnancy), doctors will test blood sugar levels to see if they are too high. Women pregnant with multiples have a higher risk of getting gestational diabetes and by the twenty eighth week, the doctor’s test confirms (they have) this and then the doctor puts them on a diet. That’s a too-little too-late approach,” says Luke.

Therefore, she recommends a diabetic diet. While good diet is critical, Luke advises women to take additional supplements to address specific issues that women expecting twins typically have.

“I recommend taking extra calcium, magnesium and zinc. Calcium helps with blood pressure (lowering a preeclampsia risk) and bones. Magnesium helps prevent premature labor (by minimizing uterine contractions) and it reduces the risk of cerebral palsy because it protects the developing nervous system. Zinc is vital for the development of the baby's nervous system. Plus, it reduces the risk of infection as well,” explains Luke.