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
-
Calls for National Social Prescribing Scheme
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), Consumers Health Forum of Australia (CHF) and Mental Health Australia are urging the government to implement a national social prescribing scheme to tackle Australia’s mental health and wellbeing crisis.
Mental ill health is a growing problem in Australia and has been made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 2017, GPs across Australia have rated mental health as the most common presentation they see as part of the RACGP’s annual Health of the Nation survey. Approximately 20% of patients consult their GP for what are primarily social problems.
-
Metabolic health expert talks about healthy ageing
David Beard is a highly experienced Exercise Physiologist with a specialisation in metabolic health and healthy aging. He has spent over 40 years in this profession, even before exercise physiology was formally recognised as a discipline. His extensive background includes over a decade of working in aged care and a strong focus on adult health and fitness. David has authored a book on healthy aging and dedicated the last 10 to 12 years to advancing his expertise in metabolic health issues such as diabetes, weight loss, and inflammatory conditions. He is a co-owner of HFRC in Nedlands, Western Australia, where he has worked for nearly a decade.
-
Growing impact of blood cancer on women
According to the Leukaemia Foundation, blood cancer is one of the most urgent and under-recognised women’s health issues in Australia, with three times more Australian women diagnosed with blood cancer than ovarian and cervical cancer combined (Source: AIHW, Cancer Data in Australia, 2024).
Blood cancer has also emerged as the second most common cancer diagnosed in Australian women overall – behind only breast cancer – and the leading cancer amongst girls and women under the age of 30 (Source: AIHW, Cancer Data in Australia, 2024).
