By Kasey Cain, California H&V
Nothing went according to plan with my oldest son’s birth. He was sunny-side up and his heart rate dropped seven times in labor. After many attempts to reposition, I finally had a C-section. He didn’t pass his first hearing screening but was very difficult to soothe. On day two, he “eventually” passed in his left ear, but not his right. “It’s probably fluid or maybe vernix in his ears since he was born through C-section,” we were told. We dutifully showed up to get his “pass” two weeks later, or so we thought. Zander failed in both ears. We were shocked. Like most families, we had no family history of hearing loss. All fluid should have been gone by now. After the ABR, we learned he had sensorineural hearing loss, mild-moderately severe on his left, and worse on his right. I was speechless when I asked a quiet question over my sleeping newborn and the audiologist answered in her normal tone of voice, “He can’t hear us right now.” What could he hear?