See pics of Sera and her twin girls at the show Instagram @thegreatsurprisepod.If you want to hit me or Sera up with any questions or tell me your story, the show’s Instagram is @thegreatsurprisepod – send me a message.   If you liked this episode, leave a rating or review or subscribe/follow – it helps me to keep telling the incredible stories from the multi-mums of our world Credits: Sam Howell of CFM radio Coromandel for sound engineer and tech support  John Grant of CFM radio Coromandel for use of studioSOLO MULTI MUMS SERIES SINGLE MOM SOLO MOM SINGLE MUM 

******* trigger warning*******  this episode contains a stillbirth story Kristie is a survivor. She rose above her fractured, abusive childhood to become a loving, kind, devoted mother to eight babies. She overcame difficult romantic partnerships, a Down’s Syndrome diagnosis to her first born (when she was barely an adult herself), and the loss of one of her quads which she had to carry through to delivery of the surviving three.  In the first year with her three newborns, Kristie had no support. She did it all while parenting her three older boys as well. Yet – you will never hear a more happy and relaxed voice than Kristie’s. Listening to her makes you feel all sunny and bright.  Kristie’s large facebook following can be found here https://www.facebook.com/4MoreToAdore and her Instagram is @4moretoadoreplusmore This show’s Instagram is @thegreatsurprisepod – send me a message. On our Instagram, you can see ALL our beautiful mamas with their babies. If you liked this episode, leave a rating or review or subscribe/follow – it helps me to keep telling the incredible stories from the multi-mums of our world  Credits: Sam Howell of CFM radio Coromandel for sound engineer and tech support John Grant of CFM radio Coromandel for use of studio

After three years of trying for a baby,  Sam was shocked to find out she was pregnant with twins… a week after bringing her husband home from a sudden illness requiring two brain surgeries. Just as Sam was getting her head around it all, she was told she had the rarest and most high-risk type of twins, MCMA or monochorionic-monoamniotic twins. She was given a long list of high probability and terrifying outcomes. This nearly brought her to her knees… and then five weeks later she found out she never should've been told this as it was too early to classify and was incorrect.  Sam also shares her vaginal and breech birth story as well her painful breastfeeding journey.‘See pics of Sam and her girls at  the show Instagram @thegreatsurprisepod. If you want to hit me or Sam up with any questions or tell me your story, the show’s Instagram is @thegreatsurprisepod – send me a message. If you liked this episode, leave a rating or review or subscribe/follow – it helps me to keep telling the incredible stories from the multi-mums of our world  Credits: Sam Howell of CFM radio Coromandel for sound engineer and tech support John Grant of CFM radio Coromandel for use of studio 

From Erin’s first scan where there was no heartbeat to being told she had a singleton pregnancy, to a miscarriage scare, to surprise you have identical twins… that was just the beginning of a long, hard road of stress, suffering, and then overcoming it all. Today Erin has two beautiful, healthy, vibrant daughters. Erin’s caring nature and resilience to adversity began early in her life helping out her single mum raise her four brothers and sister in N.S.W housing commission.  See pics of Erin and her family at our the show on Instagram @thegreatsurprisepod. If you want to hit me or Erin up with any questions or tell me your story, the show’s Instagram is @thegreatsurprisepod – send me a message.  If you liked this episode, leave a rating or review or subscribe/follow – it helps me to keep telling the incredible stories from the multi-mums of our world. Credits: Sam Howell of CFM radio Coromandel for sound engineer and tech support John Grant of CFM radio Coromandel for use of studio   

Doreen is 87 years old and had her twin boys in the late 1950s in rural New Zealand. She found out she was pregnant with twins two weeks before she gave birth. Before I chatted to Doreen, I reached out to the multiples community and asked what they’d like to hear from our grandmother’s generation. Doreen answers a lot of that. From the birth where she was completely knocked out to hand washing nappies and feeding new babies freshly milked cow’s milk.Doreen speaks about her house burning down and losing everything five months into the twin pregnancy. She also touches on her unconventional childhood and the relationship with her husband.  See pics of Doreen’s twins (and me with my twins and Doreen ) at our show Instagram @thegreatsurprisepod  https://www.instagram.com/p/CP_4n_xDSxy/ If you want to hit me with any questions or tell me your story, the show’s Instagram is @thegreatsurprisepod – send me a message.  If you liked this episode, leave a rating or review or subscribe/follow – it helps me to keep telling the incredible stories from the multi-mums of our world. Credits: Sam Howell of CFM radio Coromandel for sound engineer and tech support John Grant of CFM radio Coromandel for use of studio

In Perth, Western Australia, nearly a year ago – nothing short of a miracle took place.  Against all advice and medical probability Natalie or ‘Nat’ (already a mum to a little girl) gave birth to four, big, beautiful, healthy babies. And they weren’t far from full-term (if you count 37 weeks as full-term as we do in the multiples community) – and she birthed them all without complications.   And get this, she kept the gender reveal for the birth!  Listen to her very great surprise quad story … the chaos before and after… and just how many nappies do you go through with quad babies???? Not even Nat knows.  Nat’s Instagram is  @kikiandthequads https://www.instagram.com/kikiandthequads/ If you want to hit me with any questions or tell me your story, the show’s Instagram is @thegreatsurprisepod  http://www.instagram.com/thegreatsurprisepod/ – send me a message.  On Instagram, you can also see all our beautiful mamas with their babies – here it is again @thegreatsurprisepod.  http://www.instagram.com/thegreatsurprisepod/ If you liked this episode, leave a rating or review or subscribe / follow – it helps me to keep telling the incredible stories from the multi-mums of our world Credits: Sam Howell of CFM radio Coromandel  sound engineer and tech support John Grant of CFM radio Coromandel for use of studio

Anne Stephens is mum to rising stars in the Australian media landscape, twin sisters, Clare and Jessie Stephens. She is also mum to another set of twins, brothers, Nick and Jack.  Before all the twins, Anne adopted out her first son in relative secrecy.  Anne has been a teacher all her life and has big ‘favourite English teacher’ energy.  Not surprisingly, she has a lot of insights into the nature of raising twins. After this recording, she found out her twin daughters are actually identical (they took a DNA test). They’d lived their 30+ years plus thinking they were fraternal.  You can hear Anne’s full adoption story here:https://www.mamamia.com.au/podcasts/no-filter/when-anne-met-andrew/https://podtail.com/en/podcast/no-filter/when-andrew-met-anne-a-son-s-story/Her daughters Instagram: @jessiestephens90 @clare.stephenss@thetwins_thoughts If you want to hit me with any questions or tell me your story, the show’s Instagram is @thegreatsurprisepod – send me a message :-)  https://www.instagram.com/thegreatsurprisepod/ On  Instagram, you can also see all our beautiful mamas with their babies – here it is again @thegreatsurprisepod https://www.instagram.com/thegreatsurprisepod/ If you liked this episode, leave a rating or review or subscribe/follow – it helps me to keep telling the incredible stories from the multi-mums of our world Credits:Sam Howell of CFM radio Coromandel for sound engineer and tech support John Grant of CFM radio Coromandel for use of the studio