News
Zappo the Magician at Playgroup
Our club had a very successful event last holidays at Playgroup when Zappo the Magician came to entertain our hordes. We had a great turn out with over 25 preschoolers and a multitude of older siblings adding up to nearly 40 children. Zappo performed a wonderful show which really held the children's attention, especially the over two's. It was fascinating to watch the children as they sat watching. So completely focused and intent at times, and then laughing their heads off at others. Happy laughing children, what could be better! Zappo had a sense of humour that really appealed to our youngsters. Thanks to Coralie for arranging Zappo's visit. It went so well that we hope to do it again next year.
Playgroup trip to Lindale
By: Coralie Morrison. In the April School holidays our Playgroup had a fantastic trip to Lindale Farm on the Kapiti Coast. There was a huge age range of kids - many school age twins and lots of little ones too. All of them enjoyed the farm and had a balst. The kids all got a bucket of pellets to feed the animals. They fed chickens, goats, pigs, sheep and a huge highland cow! All finished off with a wonderful morning tea at the end.
Feeding the sheep at Lindale.
Feeding the goats at Lindale.
Kapi-Mana Multiple Birth Club members at Lindale.
Next school holidays Old Macdonalds Farm will be coming to Playgroup on Wednesday 14 July 10 am-12 noon at Plimmerton Pavillion. So make sure you have it in your diaries now, the kids would hate to miss it. Everyone welcome and all completely free!
Life after twins!
Twin club member Dale Hartle and her husband recently gave their 21 year old twins the best 21st present ever - they left home! Dale and Mike spent two weeks warming up in North Queensland, visiting Townsville, Magnetic Island, and Cairns. During the holiday, they attended a friend's wedding and walked many trails and beaches on the island, and went to an outback drive-in movie with the full moon rising in the background. In Cairns Mike and Dale rode on the historic Kuranda Railway and Skyrail, and snorkelled and scuba-dived on the Great Barrier Reef. And yes, the boys survived two weeks home alone!
Dale emerging from the water after her second dive.
Club member's twins turn 21
4 April 2010: Congratulations to Callum and Blair Hartle, who turned 21 on 4 April 2010. The occasion was marked with a family afternoon tea BBQ on Easter Sunday. Callum and Blair are Dale's second set of twin boys.
Life Membership awarded to long time member
At the 2009 Annual General Meeting, the members of the Kapi Mana Multiple Birth Club awarded Life Membership to their longest serving member, Dale Hartle, who is also the club's Webmaster.
Dale first joined the club in 1980 when she was expecting her first set of twins, who are now 29 years of age. Her second set of twins are 20 years, and she is the only member of the club with two sets of twin boys.
During her time with the club, Dale has held most committee positions, from Newsletter Editor to President. She has also attended several NZMBA conventions, and helped organise clothing, equipment hire and meals.
In receiving the award from the Club's President Rachel Griffiths (pictured above), Dale said that she was "honoured to be acknowledged by the club" and is committed to remaining a member and operating the club's websites.
Woman gives birth to twins a week apart
2 April 2010: Jennifer Renz's daughter Grace, who weight 1lbs 13oz, arrived first on March 22 through a natural delivery, but her other baby did not routinely follow.
As the babies were almost 12 weeks premature, doctors decided to leave the second in the womb until he was ready to come out. Noah, weighing 2lbs and 15oz arrived a week later.
Read the full story on the Telegraph website.
US woman with 2 wombs delivers twin daughters
1 March 2010: A Michigan woman with two wombs has given birth to twin daughters - one from each uterus. The Mining Journal and WLUC-TV reported that Sarah Reinfelder's two healthy babies were delivered seven weeks premature by caesarean section at Marquette General Hospital in the Upper Peninsula.
The 21-year-old woman has a condition known as uterus didelphys, and doctors say such twin births are rare. The uteri are different sizes, with the larger twin born from the larger uterus.
Read the full story on the Telegraph website.
Twins certainly run in the family
6 October 2009: Big sisters are meant to be the ones dishing out the advice but for Kerry Williams it's the other way round at the minute. When she found out she was expecting twins she turned to her little sister Carly O'Brien for support. Read their story on The Portsmouth News website.
Premature births
8 October 2009: A new study shows that more than a million babies die each year because they are born too soon, and that the highest rates of preterm births are in Africa followed by North America. VOA looks at the causes and sometimes devastating results of being born prematurely. Read this article on the VOANews.com website.
The Cost of Twins
14 October 2009: The 'octomom' may have gotten much of the media attention on multiple births this year, but the more mundane epidemic of twins actually costs the American health care system and affects the lives of families far more. Read this story from the New York Times.
US mum has twins by different dads
20 May 2009: An American woman has astonished medical experts by giving birth to twin boys - with different fathers.
In a case known as heteropaternal superfecundation, 11-month old Dallas-born twins Justin and Jordan have different dads, a phenomenon so rare there are only a handful of documented cases in the world.
Mia Washington, who has admitted having an affair with another man at the time the twins were conceived, first decided on a paternity test after noticing the boys had different facial features.
Her fiancee James Harrison is the biological father of Jordan, but Justin's biological father is the man Washington had an affair with.
Harrison said he will bring up the two boys as his own; he said he has forgiven his fiancee and promised to stay with her, according to online reports. Read the full story Online.
Newborn Octuplets Appear Healthy
27 January 2009: Life changed forever for a woman who has given birth to eight babies in Southern California, the world's second live-born set of octuplets.
The mother, who was not identified, gave birth on Monday to six boys and two girls weighing between 680 grams and 1.474kg, doctors at Kaiser Permanante Bellflower Medical Centre said.
The hospital, 27km southeast of Los Angeles, had scheduled a Caesarean section for seven babies, but doctors were surprised by the eighth baby.
The babies would probably remain in the hospital for at least two months but the mother should be released in a week.
Lisa Marie Presley has twin girls
13 October: Lisa Marie Presley and husband Michael Lockwood have picked out names for their newborn twin girls: Finley and Harper.
The twins were born, via Caesarean section, last week. They weighed 5lbs 15oz and 5lbs 2oz.
Presley, 40, also has daughter Riley, 19, a model, and Benjamin, 15, with ex-husband Danny Keough.
Conjoined Twins born in Gambia
8 August 2008: For the first time in the history of childbirth in The Gambia, one Ramatoulie Jallow, a resident of Serrekunda London Corner, on Wednesday afternoon, went under the knife in a major caesarean operation that led to the birth of conjoined female twins. View photo and story on the WOW website.
Quads born in USA
8 August 2008: History was made at A.O. Fox Memorial Hospital on Friday 8 August with the birth of quadruplets to a Walton couple, a hospital official said. The four girls, who were born premature at 27 weeks, had been taken to two larger hospitals where they can get the care they need, a hospital official said. Read the full story on the Daily Star website.