Photo report from the delivery room: the twin birth of mother Elena

The protagonist of this second photo report from the delivery room is Elena, 33 years old. Beside her Tommaso 41. Elena and Tommaso already have two children: one of 5, Alessandro, and one of 8, Leonardo. Two boys.

Then the "surprise". A positive test, an unwanted pregnancy. And the discovery of expecting two children, two twins. So many fears at the beginning. Happiness then.

Read also: twin pregnancy, everything you need to know

Benedetta and Lorenzo were born on November 14 last at the Santa Maria della Misericordia Hospital in Perugia. The birth of mother Elena, like that of Pamela published two weeks ago, was followed and immortalized step by step by our photojournalist Anna Catalano, specialized in childbirth photos and present at the moment of the birth of the twins.

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Photoreportage: mother Elena's twin birth

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An unexpected twin pregnancy. A delivery different from what one would expect. Elena, 33 years old and already a mother of two children, is the second protagonist of a series of ...

This article is the second of the special dedicated to childbirth reportage throughout the country that will also accompany us in 2022.
Two weeks ago we told about Pamela's birth and her pregnancy with lymphoma.

"I've always liked the idea of ​​having three children," Elena tells us on the phone. "But, between saying, I like it and I want it, she runs there ...

My husband has always known this, but it was something we had not yet considered. We were frightened of the idea of ​​getting to grips with a newborn, especially since we had passed the baby food and diaper phase and our children were now independent: we already see them grown up. So there was no mention of the possibility of starting all over again ".

However, at some point, Elena found herself pregnant. "I didn't want to believe it. I was 10 days late and blamed it on stress," explains the new mother.
"I had been to a concert here in Perugia and back home I did a test that I already had around. It was positive ... I thought it had expired! I tried again the next day and I was already 4-5 weeks old! I think about it in retrospect ... the group was The Fast Animals and Slow Kids, the album was called 'Maybe it's not Happiness' and the tour 'Maybe it really is'. the perfect title for this unexpected pregnancy ... I didn't think it was Happiness, but I had to change my mind ".

Fear… pregnant for the third time

Elena then finds herself pregnant without having looked for him. She makes an appointment with the gynecologist and goes there with her husband. Both were ready, prepared for a third baby to arrive. Instead…

"As soon as the gynecologist places the probe on her stomach, during the ultrasound, she tells us: 'I don't know how to tell you, there are two'".

The frost. Elena and her husband are bleached. "Casper effect" she adds smiling.
"Luckily I was already lying on the bed. It's true, It was great news and everyone likes the twins. But they are also scary. We already had two children. Four… how to do it? How to manage everything? "

Father Tommaso is of the same opinion: "Inside me, the darkness! Because yes, I admit, I turned everything off. After the visit we got into the car and without saying a word, my wife and I went home with an absent look ... nice trauma! I preferred not to think about it ".

"If I was afraid of the arrival of a baby, imagine two," continues Elena. "We rolled up our sleeves: there was to change the car, fix the house. So many worries, even practical ones ".

We spent these first few months like zombies. Meanwhile the pregnancy continued, between nausea at the highest levels with days at the toilet "Elena always explains.

Then fainting, swollen legs.
Lots of alarms, but luckily nothing serious.
The months have passed like this and the date of delivery was getting closer and closer. "Everything, every second, brought me back to the countdown. Their arrival was imminent and I had to be ready, but I was not"confesses Thomas.

Read also: twins, 15 things to know

"The two children from the ultrasound were hail, but cephalic. My other two children were already born with natural parts and the gynecologist told us to try these too", Elena admits: "I was more afraid to do a caesarean than to try to give birth naturally. Dr. Epicoco [Giorgio Epicoco, head of the UOC of obstetrics and gynecology of the Santa Maria della Misericordia hospital in Perugia, ed] kept me under control. He reassured me, explaining that everything was going well ".

"Pregnant women are normal people. The same goes for Elena" explains Dr. Epicoco over the phone. "Elena was very keen to give birth naturally: she didn't want to waste time going home, she already had two children. And she had the conditions to give birth well. Of course, it is necessary to be assisted by experienced staff, but it can be done. For example, we also assist i twin breech births".

A full-term twin pregnancy

Elena is arrived at the end of this twin pregnancy.

"My presumed delivery date was November 23 and Benedetta and Lorenzo were born on the 14th. They were born 9 days earlier, as if they were a single child.
I was at 38 + 2 and they were born 3 kg and 340 grams her, 2 kg and 910 him.

They seemed so small to me anyway. I was also embarrassed to take them. "

A twin birth, spectacular

"The birth was spectacular," Elena confides. "They still induced me with oxytocin because the children were getting too big." Elena was terrified of induction but, as she explains, "I felt severe pain only in the last two hours. I followed the advice of obstetricians and doctors in all respects, even the most absurd, even those that I would not have imagined. example change position when I was in pain.

It was really nice. "

Benedetta and Lorenzo were born about half an hour apart from each other.

At 12.53 Benedetta.

13.25 Lorenzo.

The birth of Benedetta, an immense joy

"When Benedetta was born I felt immense joy. As soon as they put it on my stomach I cried. These are such strong emotions that it takes years to process them.

I felt it being born. She cried, they only put it on my stomach and I didn't feel anything anymore. I was just happy. "

"Then they removed her to check her and there Dr. Epicoco told me: 'When you feel the contractions, push that Lorenzo has to get out'".

"But then and there the contractions didn't start right away."

Give birth to twins? Nature takes care of it

"Nature is perfect. I didn't think 'Oh my God, now I have to do another one' or anything like that. Lorenzo was born on his own, with three thrusts. Because I didn't really have such severe pain, otherwise I think he would have only been born with two. Benedetta was born easily: the feeling of a glove. The same naturalness. Beyond the pain, it is normal that there is, it was more natural. When one thinks of twins, one thinks that everything is more difficult: double pain, double labor, double expulsion. Here I can tell you that Lorenzo's birth was easier " Elena confides.

Lorenzo is also immediately placed on Elena's stomach. And then, in the cradle, with their little sister Benedetta, close to their mother. "When I saw them close there, I felt an infinite sweetness. I said to myself: 'They are really mine, really they are ours? How is it possible that they were inside me? They are big, they don't look like twins. They are perfect'".

"Oh my God, this little wren was inside of me, life was inside of me. It's so perfect that it's impossible for me to have done it."

"I was right in the clouds, in a cloud effect.

Then they checked them and in the meantime they checked me too. The midwives were wonderful. They took extreme care of me: I felt extremely pampered, safe ".

Elena felt good right away. She immediately brought both of her children to her. On her chest. "There I reached the apex" she explains moved.
Benedetta and Lorenzo were immediately placed in the room with their mother. "They were fine, they were big enough. They didn't even need the thermal cradle. And to think about how terrified I was, but ... everything went well," Elena confides with a smile.

Double love

"Two tracks, two beats. Seeing the two babies, the two umbilical cords. All double. Love is also double" confided to us with emotion Anna Catalano, our photojournalist, just out of the delivery room.

And dad?

Tommaso has entered. He has changed expression.

"When Benedetta was born, a wave of emotions overwhelmed me" explains Tommaso. "But it wasn't over. 32 incessant minutes. 13:25 Lorenzo is born ..."

"and my lungs are filled with air again, as if I too had been reborn with them".

"From the delivery room they tell me that the children are fine" continues Tommaso, "Elena is fine and I can go in. The time has come, they have arrived. I get dressed, I enter, I find Elena, I kiss her, she is really fine, I look up and a little farther on a white sheet that moves. I lift it to see well and ... the Light! The darkness is gone. They are there, they were real, they were there in front of my eyes, my children, as perfect as only a baby can be, the 'privilege' that the Eternal Father has given me. After nine months I rekindled everything and in the light I saw that Their names had already been written in my heart for a long time and all fears are gone. There was only one pounding thought to take a strong voice: 'Welcome Benedetta and Lorenzo, I am your dad and you, with Leonardo and Alessandro, will always be my breath!' "

The two little brothers? How did Leonardo and Tommaso take it?

At the sight of Benedetta and Lorenzo, everything changes. As Elena says: "They surprised me both. Leonardo maternal and cute. Alessandro ... he too was very sweet. He looked at them with a look ... you already understood that he loved them".

The return home in six

latching on badly to the breast.

Twin birth? Better than any expectation

caesarean

"I have to admit: I realize that indeed fear is the worst enemy of love. And so all the thoughts made before ... if on one side they help you because they put you in a projection of what could be, but ... it's not just that. I thought of having four children, of not sleeping anymore, of expenses ... but after the birth of Benedetta and Lorenzo everything took on another value.

And everything else takes a back seat.

I don't mind not being able to buy that particular thing: maybe I didn't even need it.

I don't even mind having started to wake up again at night. "

"Children bring with them the strength to be able to raise them".

"My advice? Trust and trust. Nature is perfect on its own," Elena concludes.

The deepening: twin pregnancy

Since when do you see, who to follow, what are the risks and what is the prenatal path like? Here is a lot of useful information on twin pregnancy for a peaceful and conscious gestation

The first month in six, the report of this adventure

"Almost a month has passed since the birth of Benedetta and Lorenzo, and it was the month of the 'most': very tiring, very stressful, very heavy ... but despite all this, I don't know why, I was expecting a worse situation! "explains mum Elena.

"It will be that for the whole pregnancy every time I said to expect twins, 90% of people practically more than good wishes he made me condolences ...

Maybe those who passed there told me that he remembered the first few months as the hardest time of his life and that the best would come only later ...

It will be that as well those who have never had twins expressed their fears like 'when will they cry together? And when will they be hungry together? And when will they be changed? And when one gets sick, will the other infect too? What about breastfeeding? By artificial force!

It will be that, in fact, I had prepared for the worst calibrating myself on the stories, experiences and fears of others ...

But I had left out a detail: the love and strength that new mothers receive by grace, almost as if it were a gift brought by the children themselves. Ironically, if I think about this time, the first adjectives that come to my mind are: beautiful, very rich, very full ... "

Tommaso helps Elena a lot, but a huge hand also comes from the two older brothers, Leonardo and Alessandro. "They don't even notice the help they give me, even when they just distract them," he comments. "If I think about the 'balance game', I realize that the more time passes, the more the 'against' plate empties of useless fears and the more that the 'pros' becomes filled with certainties, good times and goals achieved! Because yes, the effort is a lot and the management is often complicated, but the beauty, joy and fullness that children bring with their arrival pays off generously and everything else fades..

Before having them with me, I was terrified at the very thought of being alone with two babies. Now, and here every mom will understand me, instead of taking advantage and sleeping when they sleep, I spend my time staring at them and falling in love more and more with every grimace and smile they make in their sleep. They are not a pit of problems as one might inevitably think, but a source of grace: children are truly THE GIFT! The effort is double, undeniable, but the joy is full and overflowing! Plus, as everyone says, 'the best is yet to come' and I can't wait to discover it and experience it together with my Dwarves and our family! "She concludes.

About the photographer Anna Catalano

Anna Catalano, 37, is a professional photographer.
He has been shooting for more than 15 years, he studied photography and continues to update himself today.
In 2022 she became Giulia's mother. Since then her attention has focused on motherhood and childhood, telling it in an authentic way, trying to bring out and exorcise the most common cultural and social clichés linked to this universe, in disparate and often difficult contexts and contexts.
He collaborates with Del Paeseni magazine, hospitals, companies and individuals.
We at MyModernParents have chosen Anna to develop childbirth photo-reportage, to which she dedicates herself with professionalism, passion and great respect for the people involved.
FB: facebook.com/familyreporter/
Instagram: instagram.com/thefamilyreporter/

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