Hello my name is Natalie
I am 19 years old
And had my gorgeous baby boy Matthew on 29.03.2011
I am so happy and feel very lucky and blessed to have a wonderful fiance Tony he is the most caring person ever! and our baby boy Matthew. Hopefully i will be married within two years

I was born with a cleft lip & palate; and as a child growing up being a little different was not the easiest thing as im sure many people for many reasons know. Especially secondary school. I also thought that everyone could tell i was born with a cleft because i was very insecure (still am sometimes) and didnt like talking about it. But people can not tell unless they are professional or people who have a cleft, or know someone with a cleft.
So in the long run there was no need to be insecure.

But i am happy i was born with a cleft, yes sometimes i hate it. But if i wasnt born with a cleft i wouldnt be me. And i am happy with the person who i have turned out to be.

Matthew (my son) was also born with a cleft lip and palate and this came as a Very Big shock because it was not detected on the scans and we asked and we got told that everything was okay and ‘normal’. So throughout the pregnancy we thought we didnt have nothing to worry about. But when Matthew was born we knew he had what i had as a baby but; we love him so much! And he is absolutely wonderful!
He was born with brown hair, but now it is quite blonde He has bright blue eyes and looks like his daddy loads! He has long arms and legs. He is really lanky haha!

But i know it will be okay it is really different now. I mean he can drink from a bottle Special bottle softer but still its fab! And he has all 3 major ops before he is one so he can go about his childhood with no restrictions

It has majorly changed and wish all the children and families and people born with any type of cleft all the best.