Early parental interactions with and perceptions of multiple birth infants

The perceptions and interactions of mothers and fathers of seven sets of tw ins and one set of triplets were compared to those of parents of 49 singlet on infants. Couples were typically interviewed together three times during the pregnancy and at 1 week and 3 months post-partum Two-weekly observation s of mother-father-infant interactions were conducted after the first postn atal interview. Three major themes were apparent in the interviews - the po sitive and negative specialness for multiple births, difficulties involved in managing more than one infant, and attachment issues - that were also ev ident during the observations. Although there were few differences in care- giving and interactive behaviours between the multiple birth and singleton parents, the logistics of caring for more than one infant dictated that mul tiple birth infants were left alone more and looked at, talked to and held less often. Couples used different strategies to care for their infants, va rying in both the extent to which they interacted preferentially with the i nfants and in the relative involvement of the mother, father and others.