My daughter was born in August of 1960. She was born at home, because in England there is a law that you can have a baby at home, as long as there is a fireplace in the house and you already have at least two children. A few days after the birth, the doctor came to see the baby because she had something like bronchitis. In those times, when there was a case of infection or fever, the doctor came to the house to prevent the spreading of germs to others. Every time he came, I begged him to send me to a specialist with my daughter, because I knew there was something seriously wrong with her. The doctor did not believe me, so I took the baby to a clinic. They also did not see why I was concerned. In England, most babies are laid sideways on the changing table, but I lay my babies the German way down in front of me, feet towards me. The doctors would not be able to see as well as I could that my baby was always lying curved to one side. Often, when you put a new baby down, it will stay in the position it was put in on the table. However, my daughter always seemed to be lying curved to the left. Her head and legs were also in that direction. When she was dressed, you could not see the body curve as well. I started to try and bend her the other way, but she actually pulled right back to the left. Eventually, to prove a point in front of the doctor, I would just poke a finger into her right side, but she would always flinch towards the left no matter what.

Our doctor said that he would send her to a specialist when she was three months old, if I was not satisfied at that time. I told him that I could not wait. I had seen toddlers in casts with the legs separated. He agreed that she might later need a body cast, but I refused to let my child live free for three months and then be restricted to the cast for many more months. The last time the doctor examined her at home, he finally agreed to send her to a specialist. After he received the report of her condition, he apologized profusely.

In the hospital, they held her by her feet and poked her sides, like I had, only harder. It was very hard to watch, especially when they did the x-rays. What I did not know, was that she had even more problems than I knew about. The main doctor spoke to me after a group conference in the doctor's office, he said, "Please do not worry at this time, one out of children gets cured." I meant what I said when I looked at him and replied, " I will not worry, because why should I think my daughter will not be the one. I will have time to worry if she is not the one that can be cured, after trying all that can be done."

I had never heard about this problem with the spine, but when my daughter had to go for surgery on her leg, the same nurse from the specialist's office attended to a child next to my daughter. This child could have been anywhere from 5 to 12 years old and she looked like very skinny, sickly and pained. The nurse told me that this other child has the same problem as my daughter and she had already had 8 surgeries. She said if I had not detected my daughter's problem now, she would have been in the same situation as this other little girl some day.

A few days after the curvature was diagnosed, an item shaped like a banana and made of metal padded softly on the inside with 2" leather belts on it was delivered. The left side had a hole in it where her left arm was supposed to go through. She was supposed to be belted tightly against the left side of that contraption and she was supposed to be in it at night. That seemed like a silly idea. The baby did not know the difference at that age between night and day, so rather than giving her freedom part of the day, I found it better to always have her strapped into the harness. She was not allowed to sit up, which was easy at first, because she did not know that you could see better when seeing, at least she did not know this until she was 11 months old.

An ambulance drove us twice a week to and from the hospital. There the baby was examined to see if she was getting any better and to make sure I was doing the exercises that they told me to do with her at every diaper change. Again, my own intuition did not let me down. I wondered why I had to push both her knees sideways in those exercises and why I was congratulated when the measurements between her knees grew wider. I thought again about those children who I never knew what was wrong with them, but I saw so often with what was called a splint keeping their legs apart. So, from almost the beginning of those knee measurements, I opted to fold the English diapers making them very wide. I used those folded diapers to keep her legs almost in the same position that those children with the cast had.

When my daughter was 12 month old, I heard a lot of laughter and chattering in the Doctor's office during one of the routine examinations. Suddenly the nurse came out and grabbed me. Dancing around me, she exclaimed, "she is cured, she is cured!" That was when the specialist told me, that my daughter had a second problem that they had not wanted to tell me about, because, I was already coping with quite a lot. Her right hip had not been in its' socket, because the muscles on the left had been too strong, and the ones on the right, too weak.

When my daughter was just over 2 years old, she was walking, but was swinging her leg around, when she was tired. I mentioned this to my doctor. A few weeks later, the head health person of the local baby clinic, who had recently retired, told me she had heard that I was worried and proved to me that it was just a bit of weakness when my baby got tired. But, she also told me that she wanted to apologize. When my doctor did not see why I was worried a couple years ago, I had asked this lady for help and her reaction had been the same. She said that she had worked for 50 years with babies and this was almost the only time she was so very wrong in thinking that I was just one of those over anxious mothers. She said she had not only come to apologize, but also to congratulate me, because I insisted against all the people who did not believe me when I had been right all along. Thanks to my concern, my daughter was cured.

Published: April 24, 2002

Updated: February 25, 2005

As you read this please keep in mind that all treatment and outcome results are specific to the individual patient. Results may vary. Complications, such as infection, blood loss, bowel or bladder problems, are some of the potential adverse risks. Please consult your physician for a complete list of indications, warnings, precautions, adverse events, clinical results, and other important medical information.

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