A two-part programme on BBC 4, starting on December 5th, sets out an intriguing theory: maternal/foetal conflict.
It's great that documentary makers are beginning to see at last that the nine months in the womb are a vital developmental stage, which helps to create our individual nature. This is an important addition to the nature/nurture debate.
Do watch it ( you can catch it on the net on BBCi) and let me know what you think.
I wonder: will they soon think of making a documentary about wombtwin survivors? I do hope so!
When a twin dies before birth, the sole survivor needs help and understanding. Womb twin survivors are the sole survivors of a twin or multiple pregnancy. This group, 1 in 10 of the population, includes survivors of a stillbirth, miscarriage, abortion and a "vanishing twin" pregnancy. It is a story of a twin bond broken by death, leaving a lonely survivor.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
The identical twin bond is different
There has been some interest in the idea of finding surrogate twin to help the healing. As a fraternal twin survivor I have been taught by identical twin survivors that being an identical wombtwin survivor is very different from my experience.
Here is a quote from a young woman who found out that she was conceived as an identical twin. She quickly came to understand how this had been at work in her life;
Here is a quote from a young woman who found out that she was conceived as an identical twin. She quickly came to understand how this had been at work in her life;
I'm comfortable with the idea that her death was the will of God, that she's in a better place and is happier for it, and that she's still able to watch over me. I'm definitely protective of my twin and of my image of her. I identity with her. I don't like people brushing her off as a manifestation of my imagination, or as being something that's “only within the realm of possibility but not terribly likely.” I love her, regardless of what a short time she lived or that no one else was aware of her but me. That doesn't make her any less real or any less my twin and my sister.
I've always been searching for someone to share with at a level that everyone else just falls short of reaching. It's like I've always been looking for that special twin intimacy, but never really finding it - at least, not in one person. I've resigned myself to looking for different things in different people, rather than expecting to find absolutely everything that I need emotionally, in one package. I'm probably overly-open and empathise too easily, share too readily, because I'm always looking for that connection that sub-consciously, I feel I would have had with my twin.
I've always been searching for someone to share with at a level that everyone else just falls short of reaching. It's like I've always been looking for that special twin intimacy, but never really finding it - at least, not in one person. I've resigned myself to looking for different things in different people, rather than expecting to find absolutely everything that I need emotionally, in one package. I'm probably overly-open and empathise too easily, share too readily, because I'm always looking for that connection that sub-consciously, I feel I would have had with my twin.
Comments welcomed!
Friday, November 07, 2008
Two new websites
So. We now have two new websites:
1. The Wombtwin Survivor's Project website (Take a look)
2. The website for Wombtwin.com Ltd. (Take a look)
So now we really ARE grown up!
Please let me know of any glitches, because there will always be something!
1. The Wombtwin Survivor's Project website (Take a look)
2. The website for Wombtwin.com Ltd. (Take a look)
So now we really ARE grown up!
Please let me know of any glitches, because there will always be something!
Thursday, November 06, 2008
The Wombtwin project comes of age
Well, I have just about emerged from a spate of activity, and have now delivered workshops in Dublin and St Albans, England. It has been an interesting journey but I do believe that at last I know enough about wombtwin survivors to deliver a soundly-based presentation, facilitate some useful workshop exercises and be able to anticipate and answer almost all the questions that arise.
As from next year, I will be charging a fee for my workshops and seminars, because I am reassured that I can deliver a professional service now. The presentation needs work, but with the fees I am earning from the workshops I should be able to afford to buy licences for the scientific images I need to be able to use them in public and also on leaflets and brochures. It should not matter so much, but somehow the idea that I now have a means of earning money from this project makes me feel as if it has in a way grown up. Its like the project and I have come of age, and we are both now more likely to be taken seriously.
I got back from Ireland a few days ago ( 55 people, lots of questions, laughter, fun, new friends - a wonderful time!) fully intending to take some time doing something completely different and ended up building two new websites! You see, the work of Wombtwin.com Ltd, the new non-profit organisation I set up in 2007, is now quite separate from what I am doing individually. That means that I ought to have my own personal website for my own work and the organisation should have a site of its own. So I have built them.
I have taken myself to my study upstairs and the two websites are now almost finished. The next note will be to say they are uploaded, like fraternal twins, suspended in cyberspace. They are both held for the moment on my own hosted space, but one day we will rent some space for the organisation website and then I will have cut the ties completely, let it all go and cut myself off, leaving Wombtwin.com Ltd to grow on its own. That feels very important to do.
It really does feel like growing up!
As from next year, I will be charging a fee for my workshops and seminars, because I am reassured that I can deliver a professional service now. The presentation needs work, but with the fees I am earning from the workshops I should be able to afford to buy licences for the scientific images I need to be able to use them in public and also on leaflets and brochures. It should not matter so much, but somehow the idea that I now have a means of earning money from this project makes me feel as if it has in a way grown up. Its like the project and I have come of age, and we are both now more likely to be taken seriously.
I got back from Ireland a few days ago ( 55 people, lots of questions, laughter, fun, new friends - a wonderful time!) fully intending to take some time doing something completely different and ended up building two new websites! You see, the work of Wombtwin.com Ltd, the new non-profit organisation I set up in 2007, is now quite separate from what I am doing individually. That means that I ought to have my own personal website for my own work and the organisation should have a site of its own. So I have built them.
I have taken myself to my study upstairs and the two websites are now almost finished. The next note will be to say they are uploaded, like fraternal twins, suspended in cyberspace. They are both held for the moment on my own hosted space, but one day we will rent some space for the organisation website and then I will have cut the ties completely, let it all go and cut myself off, leaving Wombtwin.com Ltd to grow on its own. That feels very important to do.
It really does feel like growing up!
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