ABC’s prime time Emmy nominated program, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, would like to highlight a March of Dimes family who has a prematurity story.

Please note that families must own their home and the home should tie into their story: Either the home needs to be fixed in order to bring the baby home from the hospital or they spent all their savings on medical expenses, and their house has suffered greatly because of it.

If you know of a family who desperately needs their home repaired and/or totally remodeled, please ask them to send an email describing the family story with names and ages of everyone and why their house needs remodeling to Kelly Mooney at Kelly@emhe.tv, no later than June 15, 2007. If you have any questions contact Todd Dezen at 914.997.4608, or tdezen@marchofdimes.com. Click for More Info.

A study at the Indiana University School of Medicine found that the premature birth rates in the United States could be linked with increased use of pesticides and nitrates.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, pesticide and nitrate levels in surface water were highest May–June and lowest August–September. The highest prematurity rate occurred May-June (11.91 percent) and the lowest August-September (10.79 percent), regardless of maternal age, race, education, marital status, alcohol/cigarette use, or a urban/suburban/rural setting.

The study was conducted between 1996 and 2002 and included more than 27 million U.S. live births.

Original Story from e-Preemie

Shauna went to the doctor Friday for a full first pregnancy exam. They did another ultrasound since she’s still had some vaginal spotting. Still two babies in there! Definitely fraternal with two sacks and two placentas (My twins had two sacks but only one placenta, so could have been either fraternal or identical). Baby A’s gestation was estimated to be 9 weeks and 2 days along with a heartbeat of 171. And Baby B was 9 weeks, 1 day, 176 heartbeat. I plan to keep adding updates of Shauna’s Pregnancy Progress, so check back!

On a side note, the joke is that there is “something in the water” where Shauna works (Samuels Orthodontics) as her co-worker had twins last year, and another co-worker’s daughter is expecting twins as well!

I wish there were “blogs” when I was pregnant with my twins, and especially after they were born to keep an online journal not only as a memento, but also to keep friends and family updated on their progress. But back in 1994, we didn’t even have internet access yet. It was around 1998 that I started to dabble in creating websites and then the initial idea of PreemieTwins.com was born.

So, I told my cousin, Shauna, that I’d like to blog about her pregancy with twins, and hopefully we won’t have to blog about prematurity issues! So, I’ll start with Monday… She knew she was pregnant, but hadn’t gone into the doctor yet for her initial exam. And she started spotting, so was afraid that she was having another miscarriage (she just had a miscarriage in January). The doctor told her to come in and have an ultrasound.

And the ultrasound showed 2 sacks with 2 babies!! And the spotting was just implantation bleeding. They estimated that she is 7 weeks along. She goes back next week for the full initial exam. I’m already excited to find out the gender so I can start buying matching outfits on sale!

My first cousin, Shauna (and one of my best friends) is expecting twins!! Her daughter Little Miss Merin (my godchild) just turned a year old, and although they wanted kids close together, twins was quite a shock! Looking at our maternal family tree, there are three other sets of twins in the family (mine included), and they are all girls!

My first words of advice on having twins - do not have their names begin with the same letter. And the reason being is insurance companies usually just look at the birthdate and first initial of the first name, and if both twins are being seen, they’ll deny one of the claims as a duplicate. I have been fighting with insurance companies for years (yesterday again in fact), as both Macy and Mallory have braces (and the same birthdate), but insurance companies look at “M.” as one and deny the other. Frustrating, I tell ya.

Another word of advice while pregnant with twins - if the doctor tells you to go on bedrest, DO IT! You will regret it later if you don’t. I’ve already offered to watch Merin is Shauna goes on bedrest, because I know how hard it was to care for my son while being on bedrest with my twins.