One Mum's Story: Holly & Lily

Lily

A little over three months ago I gave birth to beautiful eight pound baby girl at the Mater Mothers Hospital, Brisbane. This is my first child so it's a big learning curve!

At three days old Lily failed the in-hospital screening test for hearing - a relatively new test for babies. I thought nothing of it as the odds of failing this test were pretty even (at least I thought).

We went back to the hospital at two, six and eight weeks for ABR diagnostic testing, a process which requires baby to be asleep. It was very frustrating trying to coax a baby to sleep while learning to breastfeed (my milk never came in) and the recovery from labour and lack of sleep.

After she failed the first ABR test I left there crying. To think my little baby Lily couldn't hear sounds was just devastating. I kept thinking 'What did I do wrong?, this is my fault, I must have caused this'. Some people didn't understand and told me to move on and get over it which hurt.

Lily was soon confirmed to have a moderate hearing loss - that some of the inner ear tiny sensors did not develop. Lily cannot hear under 45 decibels and can't hear soft consonants like k, s, th and f. She also can't hear birds.

But that changed when she got her hearing aids fitted two weeks ago at Australian Hearing. She went very quiet initially but she's come through and has become a real chatterbox and is starting to sleep through the night too! We are also doing Early Intervention at the Hear and Say Centre which have the symbol of a butterfly as their emblem - butterflies are deaf you see!

It does sometimes upset me seeing this sweet little thing with her pink hearing aids, because she does have a disability and when she goes to school other children will notice her as different at least slightly and that breaks my heart and brings tears to my eyes as I type this. Then I feel so much more love for her. My Mum told me that Lily was a gift sent to me and to look after her because someone up there thought I was special. I am special because I have her.
 
Being a mum is the most important job, the magnitude of it is so often unnoticed. My heart goes out to all other mums, and dads too. Having a child makes your heart so much bigger.
 
Holly Jamieson
Seventeen Mile Rocks
Brisbane

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