INTERSECTION OF MULTIPLE BIRTHS, BIRTH TRAUMA AND PERINATAL MENTAL HEALTH Connecting multiple birth parents with a diverse range of organisations that provide support

With
Danya McStein,
Clinical Team Manager
Gidget Foundation Australia

Maddison Granger,
Gidget Angel (patient)

SEGMENT
Filmed in Sydney & Tahmoor, NSW |  March 2026

Aussie mum Maddi was suddenly thrust into motherhood when her twin girls arrived nine weeks early. Immediately after their traumatic birth, she was rushed into the operating theatre for emergency care. Like many families of multiples, her newborns were taken straight to the NICU, where they remained for two months.

Despite the intensity of her experience – the traumatic delivery, the post‑operative complications and the daily 3‑hour round trips to sit beside her babies in the NICU – not a single healthcare professional checked in on Maddi’s mental wellbeing.

Maddi’s story reflects a broader, often overlooked gap in perinatal care for parents of multiples. Mothers of multiples are five times more likely to experience depression and have triple the rates of anxiety compared to mothers of singletons

Danya McStein is a Clinical Team Manager at Gidget Foundation Australia. She has experience as a psychologist, board-approved supervisor and educator, with a background across clinical practice, wellbeing consulting, university teaching and training facilitation.

Danya spoke with Australian Health Journal about mothers expecting twins showing prenatal depressive symptoms, while postpartum, facing higher risks of clinical exhaustion and postpartum depression.

Australian Health Journal spoke with Maddison (“Maddi”) Granger,  the mother of twin girls who experienced perinatal mental health issues following the traumatic birthing experience and a terrifying post-birth operating emergency. She lives in Tahmoor, a town in Wollondilly Shire of the Macarthur Region in NSW, and is a Gidget Angel, with Gidget Foundation Australia.

Source: Supplied and adapted