Baby Boom X 2
Twice the joy By David Seale Friday, 18 June 2004

As of yesterday, twins outnumbered singletons in the John James Memorial Hospital maternity wing.
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It was surreal seeing set after set of twins....

Maternity manager Robyne Moore said one or two sets of twins was quite common in a hospital at any one time - in its 10-year history, John James has had three sets once - but five was something altogether special.

She conceded twins had become a lot more common in the past 20 years, thanks mainly to in-vitro fertilisation, but not this common.

"It's exciting for the parents in particular, even the parents of single babies get very excited - everyone gets excited about twins, even the staff," she said, adding there were six more sets due to be born there in the next six or so months.

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It had been quite hectic work for the midwives, more so because of the increased number of premature babies.

Twins were often put in a crib together to settle them down. This usually worked, considering they were quite used to each other's company in the womb.

"When you look at Jack and Eve, when I put them in the cot, you see Jack automatically wrap his arm around Eve and comfort her; and then they're trying to kiss each other and hug each other all the time," registered midwife Allana Carter said. "But with Hamish and Charlotte, we've got, 'oh no, not you, we're back together again'."

Guess that shows there's never two - or should that be four - the same.
Canberra Times