Patient Stories
Grey
On February 27th 2017 at 38 weeks pregnant my water broke and I went in for a c section. We had already scheduled a c section for 2 days before my due date because my daughter was in breech position so this wasn’t a shock for me.
What was a shock is when the pediatrician came in to my hospital room after he had done his routine exam on my daughter, and said “Your daughters hips are dislocated so I’ve called and scheduled you an appointment with a children’s hospital. There thay will place her in a pavlik harness that she’ll wear for 3 to 4 months.” And then walked out of the room. My heart was broken. Something was wrong with my baby.
But nothing seemed wrong with her, she was perfect. So at a week and 2 days old I took her to her appointment with the specialist hopeful that he would tell me nothing was wrong with my daughter and that her pediatrician had made a mistake.
Her Dr. Came in did an examination of her hips and said that there was a slight click and that sometimes it heals itself over the first couple of weeks after birth, and he wasn’t really worried about. But just to be sure he had scheduled an ultrasound the following week.
The next week I brought her to her ultrasound and watched the screen as the technician did her job. I could see that one hip was worse than the other and I knew it wasn’t good. We then made our way back to the specialist who looked at the imaging and made the decision to place her in a pavlik harness. His first assessment was that she needed to wear it for 6 weeks 24/7 and then an additional 6 weeks at bedtime. I was a complete mess, watching them place the harness on my baby and seeing her look so unnatural, I couldn’t help but cry.
The time frame changed after our latest visit and ultrasound. The images looked so much better and he said that both of her hips were healing nicely but he wanted her to continue wearing the harness full time other than taking it off to give her a bath, and then an additional 6 weeks at bedtime.
She has now been in the pavlik harness for 8 weeks, and though at first I was scared and heartbroken, I’ve found comfort in the harness, and knowing that it’s helping her. She is perfectly happy and healthy and wearing the harness has never seemed to bother her, for that I am grateful and I am so thankful for her Dr. Giving me hope and taking the time to fully explain what was going on, unlike her initial pediatrician. And for this website that is so full of information and helpful stories.