Very few people know what a cleft palate actually is. A cleft palate is one of the most common birth deformities and is when the tissue of the roof of the mouth doesn’t fuse together in fetus development. It can extend all the way to the lip which then is classified as a cleft lip and can sometimes not fuse in two places and be classified as either a bilateral cleft palate or lip. Many people don’t realize the struggles that come with having a cleft palate and being someone who had a cleft palate I want to bring to life how people with cleft palates live differently.
When you have a cleft palate you have speech issues. Because there’s no palate you can’t pronounce and form words properly. For me, I had to use sign language to communicate with my family and over time they could understand my words or what I was trying to say, but a lot of it came out like gibberish. The surgery that you can have to repair the palate is incredibly helpful because they take the tissue that never fused and fuse it to construct a palate, but the palate is weaker than and not as functional as a normal palate. This makes it capable to speak, but it’s a lot harder to say words and there were years of speech therapy and continuous practice to be able to speak. People take speech for granted and don’t realize how hard it is for people who had cleft palates.
It’s harder to eat. People with cleft palates have no separation from their nasal and oral cavity. This causes food to become lodged into their nasal cavity when they eat and it makes it very hard to receive the proper nutrients needed to grow. Many infants have a hard time receiving breast milk because they aren’t able to suck since they don’t have their palate. For me, my mom had to use a breast pump and feed me through a bottle. Even though I received surgery at the age of one for my palatal construction, the first year of my life was a challenge, especially in feeding me.
Another thing that is hard can be the social and mental difficulties with it. When you have a cleft palate no one can see it because it’s all internal. But, you still have the insecurity of having to speak. I remember having to speak in front of the class when we had to read was terrifying and right before my turn I would go through the words over and over again in my head because I didn’t want people to see my weakness and my speech disability. I always hated when people would ask me to repeat myself because they couldn’t understand me and being an actress, I have to work extra hard to make sure I enunciate and can be understood. Those are personal challenges I went through, and everyone has personal challenges they go through -- but many of them don’t have to have that personal challenge on their face to where it is a constant reminder to both the individual and everyone around them. People are constantly ridiculed and looked down upon because of something they can’t control.
There isn’t an answer as to how this happens to people, but through studies it appears to be genetic. In every three minutes a child is born with a cleft lip/palate and is one of the most common birth defects, yet almost nobody knows about it. Organizations like Operation Smile provide free surgeries around the world to children affected by this. They are trying to raise money and awareness for this birth defect and if more people knew about it and were aware of it, they could have more compassion towards the people affected by it. I believe our weaknesses can become our greatest strengths if we have the courage to speak up about them and show the world how beautiful our faults can be.
Want to contribute to a cause?
For more information go to the Operation Smile website.
