“A memorable day in our journey with Maia, our 8-year old daughter with cerebral palsy. After so many speech therapy sessions and a lot of effort, this week she said ‘dad’ for the first time. Ana – Maia’s Mum
Mum, Ana tells Maia’s story…
In January 2016 Maia had her first MRI. I didn’t understand anything in that letter when we received the results. All of the medical terms were too much for us. Afterward, we went to discuss with Maia’s paediatrician and she explained to us in simple terms – cerebral palsy.
It was a shock for us, and we took this news very hard. I felt that it was my fault that Maia had cerebral palsy because I was stressed too much during pregnancy.
It started like a normal pregnancy, in January 2015, and I discovered we were having twins. Every check-up was normal until 15 weeks when I found out that I suffered from twin to twin transfusion syndrome. This meant that there was an imbalance in the blood exchange between the twins – baby Sara was given more nourishment, while baby Maia was put at risk. It was a scary moment for us!
I gave birth at 32 weeks, an urgent C-section, Maia wasn’t growing in the womb and she had more changes happening outside.
Despite Maia’s challenges, I feel lucky to have such a positive, strong daughter. Everybody loves her. At school, they all know Maia. She always smiles, she’s a cheeky girl and she does things to make them laugh. She’s so lovely, she’s so friendly, she’s so sociable.
Maia was growing but didn’t develop like Sara. I looked for help anywhere I could. I wasn’t sure what I had to do to help her.
On our first holiday to Romania, I found a therapy centre where she did some exercises and reacted quite well during therapy, but we tried to continue at home and Maia wasn’t so engaged to work with me. We knew we had to do more.
After a Google search, I then found CPotential and a nice therapist who explained things well and helped Maia with her progress. Maia really enjoys her time at CPotential and continues to improve in all of her sessions.
In the first year, we tried our best to pay for Maia’s therapy, but Covid came and this had a significant impact on our family circumstances. We started to struggle, so I asked for some guidance and support from CPotential. They sent us information and we opened a funding support plan with Just 4 children to help us continue to fund Maia’s specialist care.
Keep up the great work Maia! x
