The heart behind Cleft Glow

Being born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate, I've had seven surgeries between birth and age 21. There was no family history of cleft in my family. Growing up, I often wondered “why me?”.  It felt unfair to go through painful surgeries, teasing, and being treated differently because of something I had no control over.

When I was expecting my first child I learned at our 20-week ultrasound that my baby would also be born with a cleft lip and palate. And just like that, I began another cleft journey—this time, as a mom.

After processing the distressing emotions of knowing what my son was about to face, something shifted in me. It was a combination of my own cleft experience, my training as a therapist, and my deep maternal instinct to protect and empower him that sparked a significant turning point.

Instead of seeing the diagnosis as unfair or feeling weighed down by societal stigma, I became determined to make his cleft journey as uplifting and empowering as possible. 

Along our journey, I became acutely aware of the emotional and psychosocial support that is often missing for families — especially from the time of diagnosis throughout the postpartum period — a time that is already emotionally vulnerable for so many parents.

Having the wisdom from my own cleft journey with a background in mental health and psychotherapy — and walking the cleft journey again as a mom — I felt I had insight, tools, and language to express, validate, and support the emotional experience for both my son and myself. I used all of that to support him through every appointment, medical procedure, surgery, social situation, and the internal challenges that can come with having a cleft — while also teaching him to advocate for himself with confidence, self-compassion, and pride.

 It was my own lived experience that became the catalyst for creating Cleft Glow — and sparked a deep passion to fill the gap in emotional care by offering specialized support for expecting and new parents navigating  a cleft diagnosis during pregnancy and postpartum.