Double double trouble no worries for Mum

Dominique Manson holds 3-month-old twins Eli and Vincent while their 2-year-old twin sisters Danielle and Brooklyn keep things swinging. Photo / Steven McNicholl

Mother of twin girls Dominique Manson displayed a calm that has since served her well when told she was pregnant with another set.

"Well, I knew what to do the first time, so I didn't really think anything much of it," said the 23-year-old.

Ms Manson now has an active support network of her partner, nanny, and friends and family to look after her 3-month-old boys, Vincent and Eli, and Brooklyn and Danielle, who have just entered the terrible twos.

Both sets of twins are non-identical, although Brooklyn and Danielle are close to it: "We're going to get them tested some time."

Her partner's two children, aged 6 and 8, also live with them at their Torbay house.

Ms Manson, who did not undergo fertility treatment, says trips to the neighbourhood shops are now almost guaranteed to attract the attention of strangers." People are amazed. They say, 'I don't know how you cope.' It's fine. You learn to deal with it."

Free time and finances have been squeezed - she estimates going through more than 80 nappies a week - but Ms Manson says she wouldn't change a thing. "Well, maybe have them a little bit further apart. But no, I wouldn't change anything."

Angelika Zoeller, president of the North Shore Multiple Birth Club, said with her family living in Germany her reaction to the news she was pregnant with twin boys Ben and Finn - now 5 - wasn't as stoic as Ms Manson's.

"I cried for a week ... then I got my head around it and oh, I wouldn't change it for the world."