Samantha Hanratty revealed that her son will be getting surgery at three weeks old to close his cleft lip.
The pregnant Yellowjackets star gave the update in a new TikTok video from Babylist, after initially sharing in September that her first child would have a cleft lip and/or palate.
“My baby is going to be born with a cleft lip. We’re not 100 percent sure, and we probably won’t know 100 percent until he’s born, whether he has the palate,” Hanratty said in the new video, adding that his cleft “goes all the way up to the nose.” Hanratty and her husband Christian DeAnda are preparing for a surgery three weeks after he’s born to “close that up,” she added.
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The couple has been purposeful about the language they’re using around their son’s cleft lip, with Hanratty noting that they’re not saying the condition is getting “fixed” or that there’s anything bad or wrong with their child. Still, the mom-to-be acknowledged that there are some “difficulties” that come with the diagnosis. In addition to the multiple surgeries her baby will need, he’ll also require a special bottle, and Hanratty won’t be able to breastfeed. (According to the Cleft Lip and Palate Association, infants with cleft lip may be able to breastfeed, but might have difficulties forming a seal between the breast and lip.)
It’s all a part of what Hanratty called her “different journey” in the September TikTok where she announced her baby’s “shocking” diagnosis.
“It doesn’t run in my family. It doesn’t run in my husband’s family,” the actress explained at the time. “The biggest thing that we all want is we want our kids to be happy and we want our kids to be healthy, and finding out that so soon in our son’s life he’s going to be getting surgeries done… it’s still scary to think that your precious little baby is going to be going under anesthesia and that there’s gonna be difficulties.”
A cleft lip occurs when the tissue of a baby’s upper lip doesn’t join together completely prior to birth, leaving an opening or cleft, according to the CDC. Similarly, a cleft palate happens when the tissue of the palate (the roof of your mouth) doesn’t join together before birth. About 1 in 1,050 babies in the US is born with cleft lip, either with or without cleft palate, and the conditions can be diagnosed during pregnancy via routine ultrasounds — which is presumably how Hanratty received the diagnosis.
Cleft lip and cleft palate can both be treated via surgery, and Hanratty said she was “very, very excited that we’re in such beautiful, wonderful hands,” referring to her doctors. “It’s been emotional,” Hanratty admitted, “but I think that both me and my husband are at peace with the fact that we know he’s going to be OK.” The actress added that she’s also “in a really fortunate place to have some of the best care” and to have “so many people in our family who are in the medical field. This was just a little bit of different journey than what we had expected.”
In her recent update, Hanratty noted that there are “a lot more surgeries to come, depending on the severity of where it is in the palate, if it is in the palate.” And while she said she feels sadness around the situation, she’s taking comfort from her son’s already-spunky personality. “He kicks more when I talk about it,” she said. “And I think it’s his way of telling me, ‘I’m fine.’”
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