mama wellness
It was never going to be a straight forward journey and many things had to
happen to get to here, so let’s start at the beginning. My son was born in 2007
profoundly deaf and it changed everything for me, I never knew love like it.
Mother and baby groups were hard to come by back then and I spent a lot of time
alone just Joseph and I, I was fine with that but I always felt I needed
something more. Eventually I managed to get a place at a local class with other
Mums and babies, I was so excited to meet other Mums and arrived at my first
class so eager. After our first class, I remember feeling so broken, my
beautiful baby was just not responsive like others, he had his little hearing
aids on but wasn’t able to hear through them until many months later after
cochlear implant surgery. I remember thinking this is a sensory class, how do I
learn how to play with my baby? I was young and clueless, I felt very alone and
parents didn’t talk to me, maybe because they felt awkward I don’t know, or
maybe because I was closed off and had already set myself up to fail. I went to
that class once more and knew it was not for me, I hated the way I felt and I
knew that I never would want anybody else to feel that way. And so it began, as
Joseph got older my knowledge of play and communication with deaf children grew.
I became so passionate about language development in babies and how important it
was as a parent to play, talk and give love. At the age of 13 months, Joseph had
his cochlear implant surgery and was able to hear for the first time. It wasn’t
like the videos you see of deaf children hearing for the first time, it was a
long process, from listening to a series of beeps through a new mechanical
device, it was a year of turning those beeps into recognisable auditory sounds.
The process took a very long time and by 30 months first words started to
emerge, at the age of 7 he had caught up with his peers. Being the Mother of a
deaf child still is an epic adventure, that we have to be prepared to stop
everything at the drop of a hat, if something major happens to the equipment or
there are any signs of infection around the implant site, It is part of our
daily life to check equipment, ears and his precious head.
