I've now met our baby's plastic surgeon and speech pathologist. Both appointments made me feel positive about the life my baby will have. There will be quite a few operations, lots of orthodontic work and our baby's speech will be monitored yearly and if needed more surgery to help with any speech impediments. I guess in a way I now know what's ahead and it's not as daunting as I first thought (considering I have a fear of doctors and hospitals myself).
The speech pathologist asked a teenager who is at the end of her journey with the operations, orthodontic work and speech check ups, what she would say to a parent who's unborn baby has just been diagonsed with a cleft lip and palate and she said "don't worry, everything works out in the end, and I think my scar looks cool". The speech pathologist said the first year of my baby's life will be the hardest with lots of medical appointments, then they'll slowly drop off, then once the permanent teeth come through, then it's off to lots of appointments again.
I have another scan on 8 January to check on baby's cleft and hopefully we'll get to see a clearer picture of how much of a cleft it is. I showed the speech pathologist the pictures I have, and she's reasonably sure that the palate is involved. It does look like to me that one side is complete but maybe the other side is incomplete. I guess no point in guessing and we most likely won't know until baby is here anyway.
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