Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week was Multiple Births Awareness Week. Over the weekend, I attended two SA multiple births association playgroups, and last Thursday we welcomed the Australian Multiple Birth Association, with lots of little twinnies and triplets and their parents, to Parliament House for playgroup, to celebrate the association's 50th anniversary and also to launch their new report, Multiples unfiltered.

In Australia, 1.4 per cent of pregnancies result in a multiple birth—98 per cent of those in twins and the remaining two per cent in triplets or more. Twenty-four years ago I had one of those pregnancies, resulting in my triplet boys.

Families of multiples face a number of challenges. Pregnancies are often high risk and can result in long hospital admissions pre birth. Births are often premature, resulting in long hospital stays for the babies. Much of your parental leave can be used up before you've even got them home. Finding multiple childcare places, at the same place, at the same time so you can return to work is also difficult. Consequently, mothers often return to work much later than singletons. You need to buy multiple cots, multiple car seats—multiple everything. There are no hand-me-downs; you need them all at the same time.

The birth of multiple babies can be an absolutely joyous time for the whole family, albeit an exhausting and sleep deprived time. But these families do face specific challenges, and I'd encourage members to download the report from the association's website and give it a read.