My second pregnancy was VERY similar to my first. So much so, that I knew very early on that I was going to have another boy. I went into labor at 39 weeks and successfully had my second boy, Ike, with a completely normal birth. We went to recovery, then to our hospital room to complete our stay. In this particular hospital, there was no nursery, so baby Ike got to stay in my room 24/7.
I tell this basic story because it is just that … basic. Nothing crazy or out of the norm. Baby Ike was completely healthy and there was even talk of sending him home a day early. He got all of the routine newborn tests. The basic vitals, heel-prick blood test for genetic testing, bilirubin monitoring, and the newborn hearing screening. I vaguely remembered that Hank, my first baby, had this test done, and that he had passed, but didn’t really know anything about it.
The technician came in and put some electrodes on Ike’s head. She told me some clicking noises would be pumped to his ears and that the instrument would detect brain activity showing he could hear… pretty cool! Now, this test is best done when the baby is asleep … yeah right. He failed the test, but they told me it was most likely because Ike was moving around too much to get a good reading. They came back the following morning to repeat the test. Still failed. Ran it a third time...still failed. I was told to schedule a follow up appointment to rerun the test (again!) and was handed a flyer with some names and numbers of places to call.
Two weeks later, we had our follow up test at our county health department. They did the same test that was run in the hospital. Still failed. The lady who did our testing was super nice. I could tell from her face and her tone of voice that she knew something was up with Ike’s hearing. She gave us a name of the best audiologist she knew, and told us to be sure to schedule an appointment with her ASAP. The audiologist would run a more extensive test and would be able to give us an actual diagnosis for what was going on.
5 Things you will do if your baby fails their newborn hearing test (according to my experience):
1. Be emotional
I remember being pretty emotional at this point and trying to hold myself together. Occasionally, I wanted to cry, but wasn’t sure if it was the situation or just the pregnancy hormones. (Probably both!) Everyone around me was saying that it would be fine. There was nothing to worry about. Could they be right? Yes. But could they be wrong? Yes. What I realized is my emotions at this point were rooted mostly in the fear of the unknown. It's scary when you don't know what to expect... and that's okay.
2. Wonder how common it is
One question you will almost certainly have is, how common is it for a baby to fail their newborn hearing test? [Turns out up to 10% of all babies fail their first newborn hearing screening due to various reasons.] Another is, do I know anyone who has had this happen? We asked our family and close friends, and turns out we did know a few people who had the same experience. Each person we spoke to had a similar story. Their baby failed the initial test, but eventually passed the follow up testing or after tubes were placed in the ear to drain the excess fluid. That seemed pretty reassuring!
Surprisingly (and randomly), after Ike failed his follow up test, I had one friend reach out to me who had a deaf friend. She had mentioned my situation to her friend, and I remember her saying to me, “Not to say that your baby is deaf, but just in case…”, then went on to say her friend suggested to read extra books to him and start signing immediately...
Hold Up ... Wait a Minute ... A few things I took away from this convo:
1. This was the first time someone else seriously brought up the fact that there was another cause for Ike failing the screening besides fluid in the ear or equipment malfunction. How was this the first time someone presented this as a real possibility? It was definitely something that crossed my mind, but how could that be since my husband and I had no family history of hearing loss? [Turns out 9 out of 10 babies born with hearing loss are born to two hearing parents!]
2. I appreciated the practical advice to boost language through reading and signing, both of which are good things whether there was hearing loss or not.
3. I was thankful that I now had someone to reach out to if Ike really did have hearing loss.
3. Yell, Clap, run a vacuum, or any other loud activity to see if your baby will notice
Unlike most parents, we hoped for any loud noise to wake our baby. As ridiculous as it sounds, we tried to startle our baby … on purpose. After any loud noise, we would immediately look to Ike to see if he would respond. Funny thing is he really didn’t … and then he would … but then he wouldn’t. Was it a coincidence? Or could he hear? This can seriously drive you crazy!
4. Research
With so many questions, researching is the most logical next step. I wanted to find out as much as I could about why a baby might fail the newborn hearing test, the causes of hearing loss, and what to expect next. For the most part, this meant Googling all of my questions. (Disclaimer: Please remember to use credible sites! There is a lot of junk out there.)
Here are some sites I found helpful:
5. Find the best audiologist you can. Make an appointment. And wait.
Ask around, Google search, or make phone calls until you find the best audiologist you can. It is super important to schedule this appointment as soon as possible. This way, if your baby does in fact have hearing loss it will be identified sooner. The earlier the intervention, the better the outcome!
So we got our appointment scheduled with a highly recommended audiologist. In the meantime, all we could do was wait. Luckily we had a sweet newborn baby to keep us busy with feedings, diaper changes, naps, and cuddling.
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