Case of Cleft Palate reported by District Midwife

Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Volume XII, Issue 4, 1 October 1919, Page 164

Case of Cleft Palate reported by District Midwife

Baby was born on May Ist, St. Helens. Pupil-nurse Campbell m attendance, also myself. We put baby to breast as usual, not noticing any deformity. Next morning, while nurse was attending to the mother, I discovered baby had a cleft palate while I was examining for any sign of tongue-tie as it did not seem to suckle very strongly. We left a note for the doctor, who visited later, and remarked he thought it the first case he had met m his own practice. He suggested I take the baby and try to get it admitted to Karitane Hospital, as he thought the mother could not manage to feed it. "Itis a first baby,"' I said, " how about trying to keep it on the breast ?" He consented, if I would notify him immediately on any decrease of weight beyond normaJL

It was six and a half pounds at birth, and went back to six, and then continued to gain until at the tenth day it had regained its birth-weight. It did not seem to be able to suck the nipple, so we tried a nipple shield, massaging the breast into the shield while baby drank. It seemed to go on very slowly for a while, but it did not lose. At a month old it was seven pounds two ounces, and the mother took it to the doctor, as he had asked her to do when he paid his last puerperium visit. He advised her to take it to a surgeon. She consulted Dr. Barnett, who said he would not operate until it was two and a half years old. It is now fourteen weeks old, and weighs ten pounds, looks nice and bright and healthy. It is supplemented with not quite five ounces of humanised milk daily.