HIS FIRST WORD WAS 'MAMA'

Born with a cleft lip, little Kaison is the centre of his doting parents' universe

- JANICE BECKETT-MZISA

A 20-WEEK scan is a major moment in an expecting couple’s pregnancy journey – it’s the big one, the one where the sonar looks in detail at the bones and organs of the baby and checks for the possibility of rare conditions.

Roodepoort parents-to-be Nerika and Aston Turner had been looking forward to the scan. The pregnancy was progressing normally and their baby was growing well – and the scan confirmed this.

“The gynaecologist checked all the organs and features and everything was looking good,” Nerika (33) recalls. “But he couldn’t see the face of our baby so he stopped the scan and I had to walk around and do some squats so the baby could move around.

“It took so long for him to turn around that my husband and I almost told the gynae to leave the scan because we were happy knowing that our baby was okay – we didn’t need to see his face.”

The doctor decided to make one more attempt to see the foetus’ features – and what he found would devastate the couple. Their baby had a cleft palate and cleft lip and Nerika and Aston (33) were stunned – no one in both their families was known to have been born with the condition and it was something they knew very little about.

“It can be hereditary,” Nerika says, “but many individuals with cleft lip or palate have no family history of it. My husband and I didn’t really know what it meant, we were confused and overwhelmed. We were also heartbroken.”