Tell your local MP: multiple birth families need more support!

Tell your local MP: multiple birth families need more support!

Currently, Australian families who have twins, triplets or more have a raw deal. Australia ranks second lowest of 43 OECD countries when it comes to support for multiples, that's just not good enough!

The Australian Multiple Birth Association (AMBA) released the report "Multiples Matter: Investigating the Support Needs of Multiple Birth Families", which clearly demonstrates multiple birth families need more support. Parents of multiples are blessed with unimaginable joy, but also unavoidable challenges. Twins are 5 times more expensive and triplets 13 times more expensive than singletons.

It’s your politician’s job to listen to their constituents, so tell them now what these vulnerable families deserve.

We’ve made it super easy with a template email ready to send off. (Politicians are more likely to pay attention to personalised emails, so if you have time to include why this is important to your family, go for it!)

Will you please send them an email now?

Tell your local MP: multiple birth families need more support!

Currently, Australian families who have twins, triplets or more have a raw deal. Australia ranks second lowest of 43 OECD countries when it comes to support for multiples, that's just not good enough!

The Australian Multiple Birth Association (AMBA) released the report "Multiples Matter: Investigating the Support Needs of Multiple Birth Families", which clearly demonstrates multiple birth families need more support. Parents of multiples are blessed with unimaginable joy, but also unavoidable challenges. Twins are 5 times more expensive and triplets 13 times more expensive than singletons.

It’s your politician’s job to listen to their constituents, so tell them now what these vulnerable families deserve.

We’ve made it super easy with a template email ready to send off. (Politicians are more likely to pay attention to personalised emails, so if you have time to include why this is important to your family, go for it!)

Will you please send them an email now?

Email your local MP

Find your local rep

Subject:

I am writing today to ask you, my local MP, to commit to supporting multiple birth families.

I am [Please explain who you are here (ie parent of twins ect) and add something personal from your experience regarding the challenges of multiples, whether you are a parent, grandparent, friend, nurse, carer, educator ect.]

Recently the Australian Multiple Birth Association released the report: "Multiples Matter: Investigating Support Needs of Multiple Birth Families", which you can find here: https://www.amba.org.au/news/multiples-matter. The report shows that multiple birth families face a significantly greater set of challenges compared to those with singletons, including:

- the costs of twins and higher order multiples were almost 5 times and 13 times, respectively, higher than those of a singleton up to the age of 1;

- pregnant women with multiples are more prone to virtually every pregnancy complication;

- 68% of multiples are born premature and admitted to SCN or NICU, and 50% have hospital stays of 6 days or more;

- mothers of multiples have a lower breastfeeding rate, and are more likely to discontinue breastfeeding earlier than mothers of singletons;

- 61% of parents of multiples experience mental health challenges in their first year;

- parents of multiples are 9 times more likely to experience disabling exhaustion; and

- 67% of parents of multiples said childcare in Australia was not affordable for their family.

In this cost of living crisis, multiple birth families are doing it tough and Australia is falling behind in support for multiple birth families. In comparison to 43 other OECD countries we currently rank near lowest in respect of support for multiple birth families.

The multiple birth community desperately needs your support, I am asking you to commit to more support for the multiple birth community including:

1. Additional parental leave for twins and triplets +:

2. In-home care support program; and

3. A Multiple Birth Allowance that is accessible to twins and is not rigidly means-tested!

In addition to this, the Australian Multiple Birth Association has submitted a Budget Submission which you can read here: https://www.amba.org.au/news/budget-2024-2025/.

You can make a massive difference to the lives of multiple birth families and their families, friends and supporters. Please consider making a commitment to provide more support to multiple birth families and sending a letter of support to the Minister for the Australian Multiple Birth Association's budget submission.

Thank you.

How we use the data you enter on this form

Do Gooder (the advocacy platform powering this online action) processes personal information from you that you enter on this form so that we can provide the functions and related services to you and The Campaigner (the organisation responsible for this online action) for their legitimate purposes, including possibly exporting it to other systems, and to effectively respond to enquiries and communications related to those services.

Specifically when you enter:

Your location data (residential address or postcode) it is used to locate your elected representative, to pre-populate your email signature and to provide The Campaigner with a visualisation of the location of the support for this campaign.
All other data you may enter, including your email address, name, telephone number, commentary and so on is used by The Campaigner to advocate for the campaign’s goals and where required may be sent to the target of the campaign.

The data collected by Do Gooder is also used by us in aggregate form to improve the service and may be held on your behalf outside your country of residence by our third party service providers. These providers are bound by contract to only use personal information on our behalf, in accordance with agreed terms. While the privacy laws of the country in which personal information is stored or transferred may be different from those in your country, we will always have safeguards in place when storing or transferring personal information. We will never sell, rent, loan or in any other way pass your information on to other parties other than to provide this service to you and The Campaigner.

The personal information collected by Do Gooder is held subject to a Data Processing Agreement between Do Gooder and The Campaigner in compliance with the EU's GDPR and Australian law.

Learn more about our privacy policy here

How is my data used?