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Cassidy's Story
CHAPTER ONE
Birth
Pregnancy/birth
Cassidy was born in 1991 after a very healthy pregnancy. I kept active and fit throughout and my diet was excellent. Cassidy was a little overdue (about a week) but my labour and delivery were natural and lasted about 8 hours. Cassidy's birth weight was higher than normal at 8 pounds 8 ounces (3995 grams).At that stage her father, David and I had no knowledge of any family history of DDH (Development Dysplasia of the Hip) nor did we have any knowledge that such a thing even existed. I later found out that my cousin was treated for DDH as a child (family history is one of the biggest risk factors in this condition). We also found later that almost all of the other risk factors were present in Cassidy. She was a first born, high birth-weight, female, winter-born child and had a mild foot deformity in the form of a turned in foot and one toe that was 'lifted'. I suspect there was 'Oligohydramnios' (too little intra-uterine fluid) in Cassidy's case, as she was so big and also seemed to swallow a lot of amniotic fluid -she often had the hiccups. The only exception was that she was not a breech birth.
I am told that the regular physical hip checks ('Ortolani' and 'Barlow' tests) were performed on Cassidy straight after the birth, but I wasn't present for these. David was present for the tests and noticed that she was crying at the time of the examination. I have since found out that a tense crying infant can affect the accuracy of the tests. She looked and felt normal to us, but we were inexperienced first time parents and had no idea how a newborn baby should look or feel.
Next page (Suspicions/diagnosis).
