Call for more support for families with twins

Jamie MacDonald • Published 31 Mar 2010 11:07 5 Comments

AN Alloa family struggling to get by after the birth of their twins has called upon their local MP to support their cause at Parliament.

Colin McMurray and his fiance Ellen Masson have experienced great financial and emotional hardship after Ellen prematurely gave birth to two boys, Tavis and Riordan, on 26 January last year.

The twins were born at 28 weeks and spent the first nine weeks of their lives at Stirling Royal Infirmary's special care baby unit.

After finally being allowed home Tavis was rushed to hospital three weeks later and ended up spending a fortnight in Yorkhill's intensive care unit with pneumonia.

Three days after Tavis was released Riordan was also taken into hospital with pneumonia, where he stayed for a further two weeks.

Adding to the stress of the time, Colin, an educational instructor, was made redundant in July. As a result Ellen had to return early from maternity leave to her job as a manager at Asda to provide the family with an income.

Colin told the Advertiser, "Just when we thought all was going well, Riordan had to be rushed back to hospital and back to Yorkhill where he had to have a major operation on his throat. This kept him there for over five weeks causing yet again, more financial hardship and emotional stress for both my partner, myself and our older son, Caelan."

He added, "We love our twins dearly, but have spent much of the time since their birth sick with worry, just trying to give them and our older son the basics.

"We have racked up debts with the added problems we have had with them being in hospital, but the cost of child care for two babies and our four-year-old is so extortionate that I worry about getting back to work. This is not what we ever wanted for our children."

A report produced by the University of Birmingham has revealed the dire extent of financial hardship suffered by families with multiple births.

'The Effects of Twins and Multiple Births Families and Their Living Standards' has found that families with multiple births are twice as likely as families of singletons to report quite difficult financial stress.

Multiple birth families have lower incomes than other families, in large part because the cost of child care prevents mothers or fathers from returning to work, and their children experience higher levels of material deprivation.

Families with multiple births are also more likely to separate or divorce. Financial distress tends to be among the most commonly cited reasons for family breakdown.

According to Colin, the United Kingdom, unlike many countries in Europe, provides no additional state support or benefits for families having a multiple birth.

Colin continued, "The House of Commons Early Day Motion 1090 calls upon the Government to take urgent action to support families with multiple births.

"I urge our MP to sign this Early Day Motion, and do everything possible to support families with multiple births in our local area. Our children must no longer pay the price for successive Governments' short-sighted one-size-fits-all approach."

MP for Ochil and South Perthshire, Gordon Banks, said he had not been aware of Colin and Ellen's predicament but he had engaged with Ministers over the issue in the past.

Mr Banks went on, "I can fully accept that the demands placed on families where multiple births occur can be significant. I am happy to support Early Day Motion 1090 by adding my name to those who have signed it and I do hope that this campaign will be useful in delivering a specific solution to a very specific problem."

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• 

  stackhouse
  Unregistered User
  Apr 4, 11:22
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  there is no support what so ever in clackmannanshire for families with twins and other multiples a good start would be a local twinsclub as parent and toddler groups offer very little help or support for multiple families parents with twins or more need a support group of other multiple parents and something really needs to be done
  
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• 

  Grace
  Unregistered User
  Apr 5, 09:47
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  Why does the state have to pick up the tab for people's life choices? The welfare state was intended as a vehicle by which people were afforded a buffer in times of most need. The daily trials and tribulations of bringing up a family hardly qualifies in this respect.
  
  While I can sympathise to a limited extent with the predicament of the parents, I cannot help but ponder how people have coped for the past several centuries without needing government handouts!
  
  This country is needing to get back to basics as far as welfare is concerned, in particular, the layabouts who refuse point blank to work, yet expect/demand their weekly giro payout but who have never paid a penny into the system should be made to undertake useful community based jobs in return for their dole money & free housing.
  
  In the case of the parents mentioned, how much are they already receiving in state payments (Child benefit, Tax credits etc)?
  
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• 

  lynda
  Unregistered User
  Apr 10, 19:04
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  I have twin 5 month old girls and there isn't enough help. It is incredibly difficult to make ends meet. My partner is out working 12 hour shifts and there is no way I could go out to work because the cost of child care is so high. I have to say as the parents of twins we do not receive a lot of money for the chiildren. By the time you pay for double nappies, food and clothing there is nothing left. I totally agree with stackhouse above that there needs to be a twins/multiples club setup in the area. The closest one i've found is either Falkirk or Dunblane and as a non driver this is just not practical. It would be great just to have someone to talk to that knows what your going through, if you don't have twins, triplets etc, then you just don't understand the difficulties we face.
  
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• 

  Steven
  Unregistered User
  May 31, 16:31
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  To respond to Graces comments which I must say I feel are unfair as I know the family very well, and Colin served in the Army for over thirteen years and this is the first time he has been unemployed! He is not a lay about!!!
  
  The family have seen hardship due to colin being made redundant as well as the medical problems that Both the Twins experianced! The added expense of the travel back and forwards to Yorkhill sucked their savings and in regards CB & TC they only, as far as I am aware only receive Tax Credits and Colin does not receive any benefits from DWP!
  
  Twins do not run in their family and although kids were there choice they did not expect twins!
  
  One child is expensive to bring up, let alone two at once as well as the added stress!
  
  Lyndas comments are all true, the current cost of child care is outragous, Grace you have obviously never experianced multiple birth parents or the great job they do and what they sacrifice for their kids!
  
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• 

  Caroline Nugent
  Unregistered User
  Apr 1, 23:20
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  I have 16 month old twins and a 3 1/2 year old and truly understand the sentiments of the previous posters. So many people say, "oh I always wanted twins, it would just be wonderful", and in many ways it is wonderful, but it is also a very heavy burden for a family especially when they are very small. So often you find yourself in positions where your hands are tied, and you just can't practically do what you would do if you had a single baby. I was oblivious to the plight of people with twins and multiples until I had my own. Having 2 or more babies at once is definitely not the same as having one at a time.
  
  There needs to be more support for people with twins and multiples. I feel so passionately about this that I have recently started a twins and multiples group here in Clackmannashire. It is run in Tillicoultry and to date we have had phenomenal response from families of twins and multiples. Since it's start it has been clear that there is a very real need for this group. We have people calling asking us to run additional sessions, and others taking days off work to just have the chance to come to our group. Not only do we want our group to be a place to rest and meet other parents of twins and multiples and share experiences, but we would also like to provide all sorts of tangible support, starting with a library of relevant books, toys and other equipment to help make having twins just a little more liveable and affordable. We would like to provide many other kinds of real support, but the limiting factor always comes down to how we might finance these ventures.
  
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