Multiple births brings joy, challenges on The Murfreesboro Post

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Multiple births brings joy, challenges

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By: MICHELLE WILLARD, Post Staff Writer

Posted: Sunday, March 1, 2009 6:28 am

Multiple births brings joy, challenges | Family First, Cover

Triplets Micah, Patrick and Kathleen Freeman cuddle with mom Ginger Freeman at home. With one kissing, one crying and the other laughing, it is a typical moment for a family with multiple births.

A week after Angela Hayes had her twins, her mother told her to get out of the house.

So Hays went and sat on her porch, trying to collect her thoughts and regain her sanity. A family riding by on bikes noticed the two storks in the yard and introduced their twins.

“The mom said, ‘Don’t worry. It gets easier after they turn 3’,” Hays recalled, adding, at the time, she didn’t think she’d make it through the first month, much less three years.

“The first month was incredibly hard and after the first year you can breathe,” she said.

She got so used to the twins, she decided to have a third.

But imagine having three at once. And working full time.

That’s Ginger Freeman’s life.

Freeman, who works in the Alumni Relations office at MTSU, had her triplets, Micah, Patrick and Kathleen, almost a year and a half ago.

She and her husband Forrest (Jojo) Freeman had expected the possibility of twins, since her father has brothers that are twins and her mother has twin nephews.

But the thought of three never crossed her mind, she said.

“Who does that naturally?” she asked with a laugh, adding she didn’t have any help conceiving from fertility drugs. “It was all God.”

Well, God and genetics. After Freeman found out she was pregnant with triplets, she learned about three other sets of twins in her family.

Freeman and Hays are two of a growing number of women who’ve had multiple births.

Multiple pregnancies happen in three of every one thousand pregnancies, according to the Mayo Clinic, and that number is on the rise.

Co-President of the Murfreesboro Parents of Multiples Club Mandy Parkerson said the club welcomes new members every month. At its February meeting, the club held a diaper shower for two members – one new and one who is expecting her second set of twins.

The number of multiple births is rising, because its not always God’s hand in the mix. Sometimes women get help from their doctors.

As women delay pregnancy, hormonal changes increase the chances of one than one egg being released at a time and therefore increase the chances of women conceiving non-identical twins, the Mayo Clinic’s Web site said. Older women are also more likely to use fertility drugs and techniques that increase the chances of twins or even higher order multiples.

Non-identical twins, or fraternal, occur when two separate eggs are fertilized by two separate sperm. Identical twins occur when a single egg splits and develops into two fetuses.

Freeman’s triplets are fraternal. Although the boys resemble each other so much now, people often think they are identical. She described them as three different people with distinct personalities.

Cindy Brindley, co-president of Murfreesboro Parents of Multiples Club, also has fraternal twins, who are approaching a year and a half in age.

All of the women said juggling time and dividing attention between the children is the hardest part of being a parent of multiples.

“I only have two hands and there are three of them,” Freeman said. “I’m out numbered.”

The triplets are a “joy and a blessing,” she said, but it’s hard to keep up with all three at the same time. Micah, Patrick and Kathleen all compete with each other for her attention. And it seems like when she finally gets one to stop crying, another will start up.

“I can hold one, but then, there’s always another one,” she said.

She said she still hasn’t figured out how to do it by herself and credits her husband for all the support he gives.

“I have a very supportive and very helpful husband,” Freeman said. “He’s there all the time, too.”

And the mothers get support from each other and their group.

“We help each other out with anything – coupons, clothes, equipment, anything,” Brindley said.

It may be a difficult job, but the women also find joy in their sets of children.

“It’s so much fun – double the fun,” Brindley said about her boy and girl.

Freeman said her life as a mom of triplets “has been wonderful.

“Every time I look at them, especially when they’re asleep,” she said laughing. “I just think how wonderful they are.”

Michelle Willard can be contacted at 615-869-0816 or mwillard@murfreesboropost.com.

Tagged under Cover, Family First

Member Opinions:

By: ChefHays on 3/4/09
Thank you for your article on our support group club. If anyone would like additional information about our group, including details on our twice-a-year consignment sale, please visit our website at http://www.murfreesboromultiples.org/ for additional contact information.
Angela Hays
POMC Email Coordinator

By: ChefHays on 3/4/09
BTW, the club's next consignment sale will be March 28, 8 am - 1 pm, at Middle Tennessee Christian School. The sale is open to the public.