When I was pregnant with twins 14 (yikes) years ago, this book wasn't around. Still, I craved food. Meat! Lots of it. So several times a week on my way home from work, I'd stop by In-N-Out Burger (a fabulous west coast chain) and order a double-double to eat on the way home (then I'd cook and eat dinner). After reading this book, I realized that my natural instinct to eat plenty of protein was the key to my pregnancy success. I made it to Week 39 and my babies weighed 6.12 and 6.8.
Luke stresses the importance of a high caloric, high protein diet, emphasizing early weight gain. Her work has been published in several highly-regarded pregnancy and twin journals. It works.
Yet some women are turned off thinking they can't possibly follow her recommended diet. I say, read the book, understand the key concepts (protein and weight gain) and then do the best you can! ( )

This book is like a 'What to Expect' for multiples, the 'bible' of twin, triplet, and quad pregnancies. Early on in my twin pregnancy, I was frustrated that most books, including 'What to Expect,' barely touched on multiple pregnancies and high risk topics, and much of the advice (exercise, working, bed rest, breastfeeding, labor, NICU, etc) wasn't applicable to me. When someone recommended Dr. Luke's book, I immediately checked it out from the library...and renewed it over and over again! Especially informative are the chapters on nutrition. Unlike a singleton pregnancy, eating healthy is not the primary goal, calorie consumption and weight gain are the focus. The book provides useful weight gain charts along with suggested timeframes, and the author explains in detail how momma's ideal weight gain is positively correlated to a longer gestational period and therefore bigger and healthier multiples. Dr. Luke provides ample encouragement and even suggests eating burgers and milk shakes if that's what it takes to meet the weight gain goals. If you are expecting multiples, don't bother with the 'other' pregnancy self-help books, this is the only book you'll need. ( )

as a mother of quadruplets, i found this book to be very comforting while pregnant- it was a book i was constantly referring to and it provided a lot of quality information and assurance that typical pregnancy books could not offer me

An excellent resource if you're expecting multiples. I especially liked the balance of the medical and the interviews with actual mothers of multiples. The tone is informative, not condescending. I wish covered gestational diabetes more thoroughly, though; that's a common complication. ( )

A useful but controversial resource for parents-to-be of multiples. A new revised edition came out in 2004. The high-calorie diet is questionable, and should not be followed without a doctor's advice. The authors (a dietician and a mother of twins) do not have peer-reviewed scientific studies to demonstrate the benefit of this diet, and some maternal-fetal medicine specialists take issue with the claims in this book.
However, there is also plenty of good information about the progression of a multiple pregnancy, signs of preterm labour, prematurity, breastfeeding, and the first weeks at home with twins, triplets or more. ( )