ND parents have suprise hb triplets

[Fujiko]

Here's a story I read this morning from a newspaper back home in North Dakota, and I thought it was interesting:
Tuttle parents get suprise of triplets
http://www.in-forum.com/articles/ind...0&section=news
(it might make you register, but it's free)

Lynette gave birth to the triplets at home, and her midwife quickly prepared for a multiple birth after Marissa, the first of the three, was born and she realized more babies were on the way.

Interesting, no? (Sorry to cause you more worry, MichelleAnnette!)

[sapphire_chan]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070116/...uttle_triplets
Requires no log-on

I was just coming here to post about this. I bet the girls grew more at home because they got to have breastmilk.

This story is *so* cool. Even though it was under the "Odd News" section on Yahoo it isn't presented as any sort of emergency situation or catastrophe. (Odd News seems to get all the human interest stuff anyhow.)

[Full Heart]

Ok I can see missing 1. missing 2? OMG I would be shocked! Great story!

[Mama~Love]

Wow! I liked how it wasn't made into a big emergency, but so normal!

[mykidsmom776]

Great story! I too liked how it was just a normal thing to them. Glad the babies are doing well.

[christyc]

How amazing! Info! I want more info! I wish I knew how many weeks gestation they were born, and what the birthweights were... I'm firmly convinced that when you aren't scared to death of your multiple pregnancy (Elizabeth Noble calls it "the nocebo effect") that things go much better, so I'm curious if she went farther along than most trip births, or had better birth weights.

[sapphire_chan]

Originally Posted by christyc

How amazing! Info! I want more info! I wish I knew how many weeks gestation they were born, and what the birthweights were... I'm firmly convinced that when you aren't scared to death of your multiple pregnancy (Elizabeth Noble calls it "the nocebo effect") that things go much better, so I'm curious if she went farther along than most trip births, or had better birth weights.

Not clue on birthweights, but it had to have been close to term or they would have been worried about preterm labor.

[sebarnes]

Great story! They probably had to be at least 36+ weeks for a homebirth to have occured. Rock on, Mama!

[Full Heart]

Seeing as how only 1 went to the hospital and that was for breathing difficulties I would think they were all at least 5.8 lbs. At least here thats what the cut off is. And yeah 36 weeks.

[christyc]

Well, getting to 36 weeks for triplets ROCKS!! I'll be happy to get to 36 weeks with my twins, and THRILLED to get to 38. :-) (After that, I suspect I'll be too huge to be reasonable.)

[ColoradoMama]

Yea - I don't buy it. Don't get me wrong - I think it's GREAT! But, I just do not believe for one second that they were a surprise. I said this in the news forum. I'd be willing to bet money that they "knew" they were having "surprise twins" (if you get my drift - if we'd have had twins they'd have been "surprise twins" to have them at home since in a lot of areas midwives aren't supposed to attend twins births). I'd just bet the triplet was a surprise. I could be wrong, but I doubt it! They rock though!

[Mama2ABCD]

thanks for posting the link to the story. a nice read to start out the day!

and all the mama wanted was a quiet home birth.
glad little silas is back home with his sisters.
what a nice way for the community to show support!

[[e-mail]]

Originally Posted by ColoradoMama

I'd be willing to bet money that they "knew" they were having "surprise twins" (if you get my drift - if we'd have had twins they'd have been "surprise twins" to have them at home since in a lot of areas midwives aren't supposed to attend twins births).

That's true, only in ND DEMs aren't licensed, so I wonder if there was a need for the "surprise," given the fact that attending any birth there could land a midwife in legal trouble. From what I know of ND, midwives there are pretty underground. I hope the media attention doesn't stir anything up.

Katie Prown
Legislative Chair
Wisconsin Guild of Midwives

[Valerie]

Originally Posted by [e-mail]

That's true, only in ND DEMs aren't licensed, so I wonder if there was a need for the "surprise," given the fact that attending any birth there could land a midwife in legal trouble. From what I know of ND, midwives there are pretty underground. I hope the media attention doesn't stir anything up.

Katie Prown
Legislative Chair
Wisconsin Guild of Midwives

I also don't buy the whole "gosh, we thought we were having only ONE baby and lo and behold, TRIPLETS!" As previous posters, I am guessing that "accidental" twins were expected, and an extra baby happened to come along.

I am also wondering why this story is just coming along now, when the babies were born in November. What brought this story to the attention of the local media? While I am glad everything turned out well, if I was the midwife (whose name has been pretty conspicuously absent from all the articles I have read) I would be feeling just a bit nervous.

Valerie
Illinois

[sapphire_chan]

November +2 weeks for all babies to be home, +8 weeks to adjust to triplets, +4 weeks to decide to share the story to help normalize homebirth (including discussions with midwife) + finding a reporter who was willing to make it a human interest story instead of a huge dramatic story.

I'm surprised they managed to get the story out by January, the reporter must be a friend of theirs or something.

[[e-mail]]

Originally Posted by sapphire_chan

November +2 weeks for all babies to be home, +8 weeks to adjust to triplets, +4 weeks to decide to share the story to help normalize homebirth (including discussions with midwife) + finding a reporter who was willing to make it a human interest story instead of a huge dramatic story.

I'm surprised they managed to get the story out by January, the reporter must be a friend of theirs or something.

The story is credited to the AP, which hasn't tended to be very friendly to midwifery and home birth in the past. I just hope it wasn't an investigation that alerted the press--that's happened in a number of other states. Given the fact that one of the babies was transported and spent 17 days in the hospital, it wouldn't surprise me.

Katie Prown
Legislative Chair
Wisconsin Guild of Midwives

[Valerie]

Originally Posted by sapphire_chan

November +2 weeks for all babies to be home, +8 weeks to adjust to triplets, +4 weeks to decide to share the story to help normalize homebirth (including discussions with midwife) + finding a reporter who was willing to make it a human interest story instead of a huge dramatic story.

I'm surprised they managed to get the story out by January, the reporter must be a friend of theirs or something.

While I appreciate your opinion, I disagree. I especially object to the idea that this story is going to "help normalize homebirth." Do you really believe that the average reader is going to look at this and think "gee, silly me...homebirth is really NORMAL!" More likely the reader is going to conclude that these parents were really lucky that everything turned out as well as it did.

Even one of your own previous posts referred to this story being posted in the "Odd News section." It is hardly going to "normalize homebirth" when a story is found in the same category as two-headed calves and "escaped chimp cleans bathroom."

If we are going to "normalize homebirth," it will be through stories of average, healthy women giving birth to average, healthy babies at home with the assistance of a competent, trained midwife.

I continued to be concerned for this midwife, whose identity continues to be conspicuously absent from the story.

Valerie
Illinois

[pookel]

I saw that story when it moved on the wire. It's a pickup - that means that a local newspaper wrote the story and the AP just picked up the story and passed it on. You can tell when that happens because there's no AP byline (the reporter's name at the top). It probably took a while for the local paper to hear about the story (I doubt the family contacted them or they would have heard it a lot sooner).

[Fujiko]

I think it's important to recognize where this birth took place--small town, North Dakota. It's a different place there. It's mostly either farmers or people related to farmers or people who work on farms, etc. Even though homebirth is no longer the norm there, many people still remember stories (even in their lifetimes) of homebirth being normal on the farmstead or that the weather is just too bad to drive to the nearest hospital, which can be a long ways away (it IS north dakota, after all). And also consider the mentality of the people--in small-town ND, everyone knows each other and everyone helps each other out. In Tuttle, ND, this wasn't some "freakish thing", this was a person they knew who had something special happen to them.

Also, the Yahoo news cut off half the story. If you read the original (in the first link, but it might make you register), it goes on to say how the benifit supper or whatever it was went and how they are getting gifts, donations and well-wishes from all over the state. The EMT's that came to the house for Silas organized the benefit supper. That's small-town ND for ya!

Oh, and it was originally just a human-interest story. It's too bad that Yahoo had to cut out some of it and put it in odd news.

[[e-mail]]

Originally Posted by Fujiko

Also, the Yahoo news cut off half the story. If you read the original (in the first link, but it might make you register), it goes on to say how the benifit supper or whatever it was went and how they are getting gifts, donations and well-wishes from all over the state. The EMT's that came to the house for Silas organized the benefit supper. That's small-town ND for ya!

It is a wonderful story of a community coming together to support a family. I'm just hoping the midwife who attended the birth gets the same level of support and benefit of the doubt. There are plenty of cases of midwives being prosecuted in states very similar to ND (rural, small-town) where it didn't matter in the least that the family/midwife were supported in their own community. I hope that's not the case here.

Katie Prown
Legislative Chair
Wisconsin Guild of Midwives