Pless Twins

In January of 2006, we received a call from Sara Pless about photographing her business portraits. Soon after, we photographed her family portrait. Little did we know that we would soon watch her family go through one of the hardest struggles a family would go through.

In May of this year, Sara came in for a maternity portrait session. Even more exciting, her sister was pregnant at the same time, so we photographed their session together. What a bonding experience it must be to go through pregnancy with your sister!

Sara wasn't due until September 13th, but on June 17th, she delivered two baby girls - 13 weeks early. Madison and Elizabeth are identical twins. The twins suffered from a fetal distress syndrome called Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome or TTTS. This is a syndrome that effects identical twins. Sara explained this syndrome to me as "one baby uses most of the ambiotic fluid and the other twin is 'stuck' on the wall of the womb."

The twins were in the hospital for 75 days after their birth. Sara described this time as a rollercoaster ride - not knowing what the next day had in store for them. Elisabeth was the one that suffered the most. She was the twin that received less of the ambiotic fluid and it caused her to have a bleed in her brain. Sara described her as a "tough little cookie."

Here are a few images from the girls' six month session last week!

Here are the girls with their big brother - Kendall.

One of the nurses at the hospital told Sara about Caring Bridge - a free website that people can use. This is a way for people to keep track of the progress of the babies online. This helps moms like Sara who don't want to sit on the telephone all day explaining how everything's going and allow them to spend more time with the babies! People can post pictures and leave comments on their guest book to encourage the family to stay strong. Sara mentioned this is what kept her going through the hard days. You can view the girls' Caring bridge site at www.caringbridge.org/visit/plesstwins.

We asked Sara where people can find more information about TTTS. She recommended http://www.tttsfoundation.org/. You can find a lot of information and even support from other families who are hoping for their babies to pull through the same struggle. Sara mentioned that she has met many mothers who have been in her position and was amazed at how common this syndrome is.

After discussing the syndrome at the studio, Ashley (our production manager) mentioned that her neices suffered from the same syndrome through their birth. Since their birth, their mother, Talitha McGuiness, has organized Race for Fetal Hope 5K. Lonnie and Michelle Somers originally started Fetal Hope and TTTS Race for Hope in Denver, Colorado. Talitha organizes the race each year for North Carolina. If you're interested in participating in the race or donating to the cause, the 2009 race will be held on September 19th in Freedom Park. You can read more about Fetal Hope at http://www.fetalhope.org/.

Fetal distress and syndromes affect 800,000 pregnancies per year in the US alone. This is four times the amount of cases per year as breast cancer. We lose more than 200 babies a day to fetal distresses and syndromes.

We hope you will find this story as inspiring as we have!