Twice the joy for mothers of twins on their special day

Meet the MOMs who will be doubly, even triply, happy this Mother's Day.

They are members of Hong Kong Mothers of Multiples (MOM), a support group for women with twins. At least two mothers in the group have triplets. And one has given birth to not one but two sets of twins.

'Even though you see twins a lot more often these days, it's still a very small percentage of the births in general. So it's very nice to have other mums [to share] how do you do it, how do you get out of the house, how do you travel, how do you deal with daily life with two kids of the same age,' said MOM co-chairwoman Franca Hekster, the mother of two-year-old twins, a boy and a girl.

Tina Purvis, the mother of 16-month-old identical boys Cosmo and Felix, said: 'It's not double the effort. It's so much joy having two because they have each other, and that's phenomenal.' The group was set up 10 years ago and now has more than 60 members, including some expectant mothers. It meets frequently and arranges special events at Halloween, Christmas and Easter.

Janet Field, mother of five-year-old twins Jack and Sacha, explained the group's activities. 'The organisation holds regular informal playgroups for the under-threes; regular family social events so the dads get to meet other twins' dads; speaker lunches on topical issues such as how to survive long-haul flights with twins, potty training twins, schooling twins - to separate or not to separate, etc; and also nights out for just the mums to relax and enjoy a glass of wine and chat with the other mums experiencing the same issues.'

Ms Field's parents, Norma and Bob Nelson, are familiar with twins. Mrs Nelson's grandfather was a twin and she has twin boys. Mr Nelson's aunt was a twin. Now the Nelsons have twin grandchildren.