Thursday, 24 March 2022

Multiple Birth Awareness Week

Mr BOURMAN (Eastern Victoria) (10:41): I rise to speak about Multiple Birth Awareness Week, and I would like to share some of the wonderful and challenging experiences I have come to know over the past few years about twins and HOMs, higher order multiples. This year’s theme is ‘Educating the educators’. As you may know, my adviser Monique had twin boys, Toby and Sammy, in late 2019 right before the world as we know it changed. Lockdowns were hard for most of us, but take a moment to think about how those long months of isolation, travel and purchase restrictions and panic buying impacted the new parents of two or three or more babies.

AMBA, the Australian Multiple Birth Association, is the only national charity in Australia focused on the betterment of the lives of the multi families and is run by volunteers who are also parents of multiples. It is amazing. AMBA offers outstanding support to the multis community, from information sessions for expectant parents to workshops on feeding and sleeping multiples and preschool preparations, as well as specialist transport, support for dads, perinatal health, twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome and bereavement support. During COVID, when the usual mothers groups and play sessions were suspended, the tireless efforts of the local AMBA communities rose to the challenge to stay engaged and connected with their new multi parents going through tough times. They provided webinars and online engagement for parents and infants, offering music and singalong events, meet the animals on Zoom and much more. I would also like to acknowledge the fantastic work of the Multiple Birth Volunteer Support Foundation for providing much-needed hands-on and in-home help for struggling multi families.