I guess I am well placed to talk to you about these congenital malformations since some 17 years ago I gave birth to my son, Steve who had both. I can say that we were very shocked when we first saw him, but since I had been working as a nurse for the past few years with children suffering with far more difficult handicaps I was actually relieved. You would have laughed had you been there to see the doctor's reaction when I said calmly "Is that the only problem he has?" and said... "nothing that bad, could have been worse!
What is a cleft lip?
Well, some also call it a harelip ... it consists of a vertical cleft or clefts in the upper lip. This congenital condition, resulting from the faulty fusion of the median nasal process and the lateral maxillary processes. It is usually unilateral and on the left side, but may be bilateral. It may involve either the lip or the upper jaw. or both, and often accompanies cleft palate. Non genetic factors may also be responsible for causing this condition. The incidence of cleft lip is from 600 to one in a 1250 births.
Well, as my husband said, if we are going to do things, lets do it all the way. Steve, as you will see in the pictures, had clefts in both lips though one was not complete. And contrary to the usual it was his right lip that was complete. His jaw structure was involved in both. No, no one in our families remembers there being other cases of cleft lips in the past. We have a tendency to believe that it was more non genetic factors in our area since we soon realized that there were quite a few cases around us. In fact, I was playing on a volleyball team for years with the same women and three of us had babies with cleft lips ... though Steve's case was far the severest. And we all gave birth in the same year. So, so much for the incidence theory here in our town!
What is a cleft palate
It is a congenital fissure in the roof of the mouth forming a communicating passageway between mouth and nasal cavities. It may be unilateral or bilateral and complete and incomplete. When it is incomplete it involves only a part of the hard or soft palate.
Well, here too we outdone ourselves. Steve had a complete bilateral cleft palate. Check out a picture of Steve taken a few weeks after birth, then the other one taken with a friend's baby born without the deformation when they were both 2 months old. They have only five days difference in age
Steve 1 Month...
