Babypalooza Magazine Spring 2018

MOMS OF
Multiples
BY BARRY WISE SMITH
iMom of Franklin and Stella, 10 months
IN 2014, THE RATE OF TWIN BIRTHS HIT AN ALL-TIME HIGH IN THE UNITED STATES, with twin births
accounting for over 130,000 births each year. Triplets account for just over 3,700 births each year, and
quadruplets and higher order multiples are even fewer. But there’s a lot more to multiple births than just
numbers. April is Multiples month, and to celebrate, we are sharing the stories of two multiple moms and
the reasons why having twins, and triplets, multiplies their family’s love.
Jennie Borland
Husband Will
Jennie and Will Borland had been married for several
years when they decided to start trying for a baby.
After only trying for a short time, Jennie discovered
she was pregnant. “We decided to have a baby,”
Jennie says, “and it happened right away.”
At one of Jennie’s early doctor’s appointments,
she had an ultrasound to confirm the pregnancy.
“The tech put her hand on my arm, and I just knew
something was wrong,” Jennie remembers. Far from
wrong, the ultrasound tech confirmed not just that
Jennie was pregnant but that she was pregnant with
twins. “She looked at us and said ‘there are two
babies,’” Jennie recalls. “I couldn’t stop laughing.”
While Jennie and Will were momentarily stunned
by the news, the fact that they were having twins
wasn’t a total surprise. Twins run in Jennie’s
family—her paternal grandfather was an identical
twin, and her maternal grandmother had twin sisters
and twin nephews. “I always wanted twins,” Jennie
says. “I thought it would be so much fun.”
Jennie’s pregnancy went well until she was
diagnosed with preeclampsia—a high blood pressure
disorder associated with pregnancy—at 28 weeks.
Jennie, a 9th-grade Spanish teacher at Mountain
Brook Junior High, was told by her doctors that
she couldn’t return to the classroom, had to be on
modified bed rest, and had to do twice weekly tests
to monitor her preeclampsia.
Finally, at 35 weeks and 5 days, Franklin and Stella
Borland were delivered on April 27 at St. Vincent’s.
“I went to a regular check up, and the doctor said
‘how about today as their birthday?’” Jennie says.
The babies went to the Neonatal Intensive Care
Unit (NICU) where Franklin stayed for 13 days and
20 BabyPalooza.com