Grace's Story

Grace is a happy, thriving baby who celebrated her first birthday in June. Always smiling, Grace has started talking and can say mama and dada. She loves going on walks, playing in the pool and singing nursery rhymes.

Grace came into the world unexpectedly at 35 weeks. “She was delivered by emergency C-section and monitored by the neonatal intensive care team. One of the clinicians came to tell us that, while Grace was doing great, she was born with a cleft palate. At the time, we had no idea what that actually meant. We had heard of a cleft lip before but never of a cleft palate,” Grace’s mother Roseanne recalled.

July was Cleft and Craniofacial Awareness Month. Grace’s parents, Roseanne and Rob, shared their experience to help other families who are in similar circumstances. “Having a child born with a cleft palate can be challenging, stressful and isolating, especially when it comes as a complete surprise to your family,” Rob shared.

The day after Grace was born a surgeon examined her cleft palate and gave the new parents a formal diagnosis. The family then had a consultation when Grace was two months old to review her proposed treatment plan. After that appointment, Roseanne and Rob did some more research and met with other clinicians.

This led them to Shriners Children's Boston and Eric Liao, M.D., director of the Cleft and Craniofacial Center. The center is a collaboration between Shriners Children's Boston and MassGeneral Hospital for Children.

“One of my childhood friends used to work at Mass General and she gave me Dr. Liao’s contact information. After doing more research on surgeons in the Boston area and after meeting with Dr. Liao and his team at Shriners, we knew they were the team we wanted for Grace,” Roseanne explained.

Grace had surgery at Shriners Children's Boston when she was 8 months old. “On surgery day, my husband and I were obviously very anxious and the clinical team updated us frequently and made sure we knew what to expect after Grace’s surgery,” Roseanne said.