What makes Mahli special.

CLEFT LIP

A cleft palate or cleft lip is a birth condition caused by the baby’s mouth parts not joining up during early fetal development. The two halves of the palate or the lip don’t fuse properly, leaving an open space or ‘cleft’. This can occur on one side of the face only (unilateral) or on both sides (bilateral).

One in every 600 to 800 babies is affected by cleft lip or cleft palate. The cause is unknown, although it is thought that genetic factors play a role in a small proportion of cases.

Surgery can repair most clefts so that the child’s appearance and speech develop normally. Cleft lips are often more a cosmetic than a functional concern. Usually, an altered nose is associated with a cleft lip. A cleft lip can be surgically corrected at around three months of age.

 

 

 

So as you may notice, Mahli's lip isn't in complete contact/formation. In my 20weeks morphology scan, the radiologist noted a slight defect in baby's face. I wasn't aware of what it was until my doctor told me what the results were. When he told me baby had a cleft lip/palate I wasn't exactly sure of what it was because I honestly had never seen anything, in person, like it. When I left the doctors office I quickly looked it up on my phone and saw babies that have it, and I CRIED! I was soooooo upset. I knew I didn't do or hadn't done anything wrong throughout the pregnancy that would allow baby to have this. I cried and complained of how annoying it is when there are people who take drugs, smoke, drink, etc during pregnancy and their babies looks perfectly fine, and when there's me who has never taken a single drug nor smoked in my life - I was mad. Why did it happen to me? In all honestly, I thought my baby would look weird. But I had no reason to think like that. He was a perfect angel sent to me and I needed to be grateful. So I eventually did get over it, and it was good that I knew that he had this condition. I was able to seek medical help for when baby was to arrive. I had many ultrasounds to detect if there was a cleft palate too but no there wasn't, thankfully. Just his lip. I could see in the ultrasound his lip and he just looked perfect. We had to go to Brisbane on a few occasions to organise his surgery that would take place at 4 months.

 

After baby was born in the Gold Coast hospital, I had to stay in for 2-3 days just so they could monitor how baby would feed. He was great. It was like he didn't have a cleft lip. It was so cute though. It's like he has three lips. I LOVE kissing them. It feels different, but I love it. The lactation consultant could see that baby was latching on perfectly and he was feeding fine as he was gaining weight, so they allowed me to go home. On the occasion when he feeds, milks comes out through the gap and it's funny watching it come out and go back in.

 

Anyways... He's now in his 3rd month. He has his operation booked for August 13th 2013 when he is 4 months. I have mixed emotions about it because I'm going to miss it. It makes him Mahli. It makes him special. I can't picture him without it. But in the long run, it will be beneficial for him. We don't know how it happened but that's ok, because he's just perfect.