Oh, my gosh, this is a really sweet article, and I just had to share it.

Alice, Doris and Gladys are British identical triplets who just celebrated their 80th birthday with a big barbecue.

The article is a chatty tribute to the women, with a few terrific photos of the triplets as they grow up.

My favorite quote from the article is about Doris’ reflection on the 80th birthday party:

Doris said: “As much as we wanted to join in, the bouncy castle was for the young ones.

Here’s a thought-provoking article from Truthdig, a site that recently won a Webby for both the juried award and the People’s Choice award for “Best Political Blog.” The article contains an interesting update about the so-called “mommy wars” and how mothers still face discrimination in the workplace.

Also, I’d like to link readers to my Mother’s Day post in my blog Mommy! Mommy!, which I’ve been writing for Disney’s new site Family.com.

Twin brothers Pat and Mike Iott are planning a cross-country tractor trek to raise money for the American Heart Association. They have already raised $12,000. The tractors are refurbished vintage tractors that I think were owned by their grandfathers. The article wasn’t 100 percent clear about that.

I haven’t seen another article like this one, so I thought I’d link readers to it. I had no idea that twins could be delivered days, even months apart. But, here’s an article about twins who were born over 2 months apart. The twins are nearing their first birthdays.

“On the math of multiples:” A triplet mom-to-be and journalist writes about her experiences so far in Canada’s National Post.

According to an article in the Portsmouth Herald online, New Hampshire’s Senate Bill 78 received a hearing in the state’s legislature Wednesday. The bill gives parents a say in determining whether their multiples will be placed in the same classroom. Note that the original bill gave parents final say, but the bill, in its current form, gives allows school principals a say, with an appeal process for parents.

A detailed article about the implications and concerns if the UK were to enact a single-embryo transfer policy for IVF procedures.

I’ve gotten behind posting the news (sorry!), but there have been a lot of interesting articles lately, so here’s a quick run-down:

The top story today is about the possibility that women in Britain may soon be restricted to the implantation of one embryo during an IVF procedure. Currently, there are strict rules that restrict women under 40 to two embryos at a time, while women over 40 may have three. From the article:

The move to cut the number of embryos implanted follows research showing that multiple births are not only costly but put a mother’s health at risk and lead to a higher rate of disabilities in babies.

Twins and triplets are more likely to be born prematurely and be underweight. Triplets, for instance, are typically born at 34 or 35 weeks. There is also a greater risk that babies will be stillborn or suffer a long-term disability such as cerebral palsy.

Research from Sheffield University showed that families conceiving triplets by IVF cost the NHS £32,354 in their first year of life – 10 times the cost of a single baby – because of the health complications suffered by the mother and children. Currently, the twin birth rate is 23.6 per cent for mothers undergoing IVF, compared to between one per cent and two per cent in the general population.

But some fertility experts have warned that a one-embryo policy – adopted in the Netherlands, Finland and Sweden – would deprive tens of thousands of women the chance of having a baby.

The above news about the possibility of a limitation to a single embryo transfer in Britain has run in a number of British publications. Check out this editorial, written by a father of twins.

I love this article about a twinmom speaking up about her public transportation struggles. And, there’s a comment from a British twins club at the bottom of the article.

A very detailed article about the separation-in-school issue and the legislation wending its way through the Georgia legislature.

And, an editorial about the bill.

Article about four-year-old twins, separated in an orphanage in China and adopted by different sets of American parents, are reunited in Disney World.

Fun article about jazz-playing triplet teens.

A school in Mumbai, India has 13 sets of twins. Nice comments at the end of the article about whether to keep twins together in school.

Dodgers first baseman Nomar Garciaparra and soccer star Mia Hamm are now parents of twin girls. The girls were born in Los Angeles on Tuesday, five weeks early.

Very interesting article about IVF.  I’ve been reading about how many doctors are now encouraging IVF folks to implant one embryo instead of more than one.  Apparently this is due to the higher risks for both mother and babes in multiples pregnancies and births.  Turns out, according to this Boston Globe article, that many people still want twins because it ensures them of having more than one child.

Researchers have discovered twins who are neither identical nor fraternal; actually, they’re chimeras, a little of both.  The twins are identical in terms of their mother’s genes, but they only have half of their father’s genes in common.  Read the article on news@nature.com and blog posts in response at LiveScience.com and ScientificAmerican.com.

Sweet! Twin sisters Grace Stokes and Elspeth Hall, 70, had a double wedding and are now celebrating their 50th anniversaries.  They even received a letter from Queen Elizabeth because of their special story.  My favorite part of the article:

Elspeth said: “We did think we might have separate ceremonies as we wanted to be married at different times of the year.

“But my dad told us, ‘You came into the house together, so you should leave the house together’ – and that was it’.”

Another anniversary, this one from Canada.com: Colin and Gregory Rankin are Canada’s first IVF twins.  They just turned 25.  From the article:

In Canada alone, there are now 28 IVF clinics across the country, and the 2004 numbers – the latest available – show that almost 2,000 babies were born through IVF that year.

But for Colin and Greg, who are planning to go on a road trip later this summer to make up for their lacklustre 25th birthday celebration, the significance of their birth is enough to make them a bit philosophical at times.

“Hundreds of thousands of babies are born through IVF every year, and it’s crazy to think we were one of the first,” Colin said.

“But if you think about it, anybody being born and turning out the way they are is a one-in-a-million chance, so I think Greg and I being born is just one out of a billion – just a few zeros away.”