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The Rescuing Hug
The Benefits of Co-Bedding Infant Twins
- Meredith O'Brien -
Five years ago, 19-year NICU Nurse Gayle Kasparian unwittingly became involved in a case that melted hearts nationwide when she suggested putting two premature twin girls in the same incubator. Brielle and Kyrie Jackson were born 12 weeks early at a hospital in Worcester, Mass. Brielle weighed 2 pounds and was struggling with a battery of problems ranging from breathing issues and troubling blood-oxygen levels, to heart rate difficulties. Her sister, 2 pounds 3 ounces, was considered the stronger of the two.
When they were a little less than a month old, Brielle had a very difficult day, according to Kasparian. "She was frantic," the nurse recalled, saying that neither she nor the baby's parents could calm Brielle down as her condition worsened and she became increasingly stressed.
"To me, all I can tell you is that this baby was trying to tell me something. I just wasn't getting it." So Kasparian thought she'd try a technique she'd heard only a little about: co-bedding premature twins. After the mother gave permission, Kasparian put the two babies together in one incubator, hoping it would do some good.
The rest, as they say, is history.
"Oh, it was instant, it was so instantaneous that day, I thought my equipment was malfunctioning," Kasparian said. ". . . What happened to that baby, it was miraculous. Nothing else worked." Instantly, Brielle calmed down. The two frail babies nestled together. Brielle's breathing regulated to Kyrie's pace. Her blood oxygen levels improved. Her heart rate improved. Simply experiencing Kyrie's touch seemed to make Brielle stronger, Kasparian said.
"The difference is day and night," their mother Heidi Jackson told the Worcester Telegram & Gazette at the time. "She's just less stressed. She likes being with her sister. She's much more comfortable now."
When word got out about the two twins sharing the same incubator and the Telegram & Gazette ran a photo of Kyrie with her arm around Brielle, Kasparian and the Jackson family were besieged with calls. And when the picture—dubbed the "Rescuing Hug" photo—ran in both Life and Reader's Digest, the twins became famous and interest in co-bedding spiked. The photo of the twins, now five, has recently resurfaced on the Internet and in widely circulated e-mails messages, particularly in circles of mothers of twins. (The parents of the Jackson twins, who overrun with requests for interviews, have declined to respond to interview requests.)
Now the technique Kasparian started at the University of Massachusetts Memorial Hospital and immortalized by the "Rescuing Hug," is becoming more commonplace. Since that day in November 1995, UMass Memorial has co-bedded at least 100 sets of twins, triplets and even quadruplets, all with great anecdotal responses, Kasparian said. "This is a procedure that works for premature babies", she said, particularly because such tiny infants are housed in NICUs that are "too stimulated and overtaxing."
The co-authors of The Art of Parenting Twins heartily agreed. "When you consider what these babies have already experienced—being thrust too early out of the soothing environment of the womb and into the noise, glare and physical discomfort of life in the hospital—you wonder what added stress is caused by being separated for the first time from the comfort of the other baby," Patricia Maxwell Malmstrom and Janet Poland wrote last year. "There is considerable evidence that multiple infants who are co-bedded handle the stress of being hospitalized, and of all the procedures they must endure, better than those who are separated."
With the interest in co-bedding on the rise, Kasparian and fellow nurse Mary Whalen decided to conduct a clinical study to gather statistics to bolster what they say is irrefutable anecdotal evidence that putting premature twins together is beneficial.
During a recent national conference of neonatal nurses, Kasparian and Whalen reported that over the past five years among their co-bedded premature multiples, their staff has observed:
Kasparian is hoping that once their study is complete, more physicians will embrace co-bedding preemie multiples. "Physicians are very analytical," she said. "They have to see proof." There are still many who worry that putting twins together could lead to higher rates of infection and medical errors in medication by mixing up the twins, she said. However Kasparian said that in the time the UMass Memorial NICU has been co-bedding premature twins, there have been no incidents of twin-to-twin infection or medicinal foul-ups.
Given the unique experiences these babies have in utero, Kasparian said, it's only natural to put them together. "They both respond to each other's touch," she said. ". . . Just allowing them to be together, it works."
This is a picture of my youngest sons Taco and Duco Ritsema van Eck - 2 days old and co-bedding in hospital.
They were born 1 month pre-mature and put together in one incubator about 4 hours after their birth (2002). Duco's respitory difficulties vanished over night. We were allowed to take the twins home only 5 days later...
The boys just turned 3 and are two healthy pre-schoolers. They still share one bed and we often catch them sleeping with their arms around each other. :-)
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My Happy Heart © 2004 Patricia Ritsema van Eck