Medical experts are advising all women to talk to a health professional before getting pregnant, for enough information about cleft lip and / or palate. This is because some underlying conditions in women can cause this defect at birth. This deformity is a commonly known birth defect in babies. A diagnosis of cleft means the baby has an opening or split in the roof of the mouth and lips which may cause the child to have difficulty in speaking and feeding.
It can also result in malnourishment or delayed speech in some children. A plastic and reconstructive surgeon at the Greater Accra regional hospital Dr. Charles Asiedu says there are no known causes of cleft lip and palate deformity.
In most cases, cleft lip and palate is an inherited condition. There is really nothing parents can do in such cases to prevent cleft lip and palate from forming in their babies.
There are no known causes of cleft lip or palate deformity but doctors have identified some of the causes as a multifactorial combination of genetic and environment. In Ghana, quite a number of cleft lip and palate deformity cases are recorded daily. One in seven fifty births are cleft cases and in every four minutes a child is born with the condition.
Most of these children are kept at home and are not allowed to access health care or socialize because of the stigma and bullying when their condition is known. Mothers whose children suffer this condition go through a lot of psychological and emotional abuse. A surgeon at the Greater Accra Regional Hospital Dr. Charles Asiedu is urging parents with children with this condition to seek medical help. He says some activities of expectant mothers can determine if a baby will be born with the defect or not.
Dr. Charles Asiedu says a thorough medical examination and lifestyle changes can help prevent most birth defects, adding that most of these conditions occur early in pregnancy. Dr. Asiedu says, there are different surgeries for cleft and palate deformities. Some parents of children with the condition shared their experience of stigma, bullying and rejection.
SmileTrain, the world’s largest cleft lip and palate deformity focused organization, has over the past twenty-five years been transforming lives and offering global cleft care through free comprehensive surgery, education, awareness creation, psychosocial care among others for cleft lip and palate deformity patients across the world and in over forty-two African countries. The chief executive of SmileTrain Madam Susannah Schaeffer says the foundation seeks to put a smile on faces of such children, their families and give them hope to fit into society without stigma or bullying.
One can access this free comprehensive surgery which includes transportation to the hospital, treatment, nutritional rehabilitation, speech and language therapy, dental care in Ghana at the Greater Accra Regional Hospital. This is with the support of the graft foundation, Ghana cleft foundation in Kumasi and other partners across the world. Over seventy children have so far benefited from this comprehensive surgery offered by surgeons at the Greater Accra Regional Hospital since 2019 sponsored by SmileTrain.
