Cobedding Twins/Multiples

Sutter Memorial Hospital in Sacramento co-beds multiples... at least theoretically. To co-bed as was originally intended the newborns should be skin to skin (or in clothes) in one blanket. However as you know it is impossible to feed triplets all at the same time since they are inevitably assigned to one RN. So as you unwrap one you wake them all and interupt their sleep cycles. Too many RN's resort to wrapping them seperate so in essence they co-mattress and no longer co-bed. Co-bedding is not as easy as it sounds though it does "look nice".

we co-bed in our unit everything from twins to quints. the just have to be infection free, no iv's and in ra or canula. they can co-bed in isolettes or large peds cribs depending on the size of the babies. this works well with fairly healthy babes, and is a big pain if you have chronic bpders who will fuss and wake each other up all night.

I am not in California, however our unit recently completed a study and wrote a paper on the risks and benefits of co-bedding multiples. We have done twins and triplets. The caveats are that they must not be on CPAP or vent, only NC or room air, no important lines (UA/UV/Broviac, etc) and not on IV antibiotics. We have Omnibeds and do regularly cobed in them.

Good Luck!

Faith

We co-bed at times while the babies are still in isolettes, after they graduate to cribs it's not as easy. We rarely co-bed full-time, though. Usually we will put them together after a feeding, and return one to his/her own bed later. They look so cute snuggled up next to each other, most of them seem to like having the contact. :kiss