Amy: While in the hospital, she was not even 24 hours old they did a hearing screen, they said she didn’t pass it.
Tamara: They told me that he didn’t pass his newborn hearing screen, and that the pediatrician would come in and speak with me about that.
Giovanna: I was a teenage mom. Right after my son was born, they told me that he failed his screening.
[Parent 1]: I was shocked. I was very shocked. Both of our families are, you know, none of them are hearing loss families.
DeeAnn: There’s nothing in our genetics.
[Parent 2]: We have no family history. Everything was very new to us.
José: You want to believe that nothing is wrong with your son.
Tamara: I just didn’t believe it for some reason. He seemed to be responding to me in every way a baby would.
Giovanna: I was scared to know that he might not hear. At the same time, I needed to help him.
Charles: We were worried, being slightly older and having kids, we worried about Downs and things like that. It didn’t even cross our mind about hearing loss.
Suhel: Hearing loss is not a unique thing, even though for us, it was unique.
Lisa: I didn’t know anything about hearing loss until both my children were diagnosed at birth, even though there’s no history of hearing loss in our family. I found out that the first six months is a period of rapid brain development and it’s a time that you can never go back and get again. And if your child doesn’t have access to hearing during that time, they miss so much that can end up causing speech delay and other issues.
Maria: They could have delayed language. They could have no language.
Crystal (in ASL) and interpreter (speaking off camera): Communication is so important for a little baby.
José: Communication, that connection that it gives you–father and son, son and father–it goes back and forth. That’s really crucial and important.
Maria: I think it’s very important for me that I found out sooner, rather than keep thinking that she would be okay.
Lisa: The 1-3-6 Rule is: you want to have your baby screened by 1 month of age, you want to follow up and have a diagnosis by 3 months of age; and be enrolled in an intervention program by 6 months of age.
Tamara: I don’t think I would have caught it, actually. I think that because he can hear out of one ear, he still responded to our voices.
John: All our kids were taking speech, but we thought it was just a speech issue and not knowing that it was actually a hearing loss issue.
DeeAnn: We might have thought that he had autism or some sort of learning disabilities. He could have slid through his early years without us knowing.
Carrie: It could have caused him lacking in school and getting no confidence.
José: One of the mistakes that I did is to get to denial in knowing what really happened to my son, and that delayed the process for my son.
Carrie: He’s too young he cannot speak for himself. He was only three days old when he got his newborn screening test. He doesn’t have a voice yet, and I had to be that voice.
Phoebe: For me in my head, I thought “Okay, get over yourself. This is your newborn baby that may need hearing aids. Go do it.”
Jessica: (in ASL) Look for other answers, and not accept the possibility that maybe it’s fluid on the ear or equipment failing, because there’s such a gap in the opportunity to really make a difference for the baby for their development, for their speech, for learning to communicate.
Lisa: A pass the first time is not a pass for life. Ford didn’t pass his hearing test at birth, he had a mild moderate hearing loss, and now he has moderate-severe hearing loss.
Charles: Within a rather short period of time, we had someone there talking to us, letting us know what’s available.
Jasna: “The sooner you start, the farther they get,” is the early intervention mantra.
Maria: It’s very important that you start services as soon as they’re offered to you. You might not be ready, but your child definitely is ready.
John: If you are home birthing, you’re going to want to make sure to find the places in your community that are offering these screenings.
Alicia: It is not as big of a deal as it sounds right now. Not even close. There are far worse diagnoses that parents are hearing about their children every single day, and this just isn’t one of them.
Giovanna: I was scared. But then I decided to go to the follow-up, and they told me that he was fine.
Amy: She’s doing awesome, I’m so proud of her.
Suhel: Very quickly we found out that nothing had changed. That our hopes and our dreams are possible like any other family.
DeeAnn: It’s important to know that you’re gonna be okay. No matter what the tests say, you and your baby are gonna be okay.
Narrator: If your baby can’t hear, how will you know? Don’t take a chance with your child’s language development. Get a full hearing test in the first month of life.
Carrie: If your baby didn’t pass a hearing screen, get your baby’s hearing tested. Don’t delay!
Giovanna: Lleven a sus hijos a hacerse el examen del oído. [Get your baby’s hearing tested]
Narrator: Visit our website and search for “newborn hearing screening” or call the Universal Newborn Hearing Screening Program at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.