World Birth Defects Day: Take joy in what your child can do, seek early intervention, say doctors
Disability is not a lack of ability, take joy in what your child can do, not look at what they cannot do. Nature compensates for disability by enhancing other skills; find those qualities in your child and nurture them: This was the message given by Col Vasant Ballewar, dean, of Queen Mary’s Technical Institute for differently-abled soldiers (QMTI) in Pune, at an event to mark World Birth Defects Day on Friday (March 3).
Jointly organised by the district early intervention centre, Aundh district hospital, and the Birth Defects and Childhood Disability Research Centre, Pune, the event supported parents whose children are born with health complications. It is the time to draw attention to the benefits of early intervention, said Dr Anita Kar, director of the birth defects centre.
Early intervention refers to services like physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech-hearing therapy and other services that can help children learn how to perform daily routine tasks, walk or improve speech. The district’s early intervention centre at the Aundh Hospital is such a comprehensive care centre, said civil surgeon Dr N S Yempalle, who welcomed the parents at the event.
When a baby is born with a health condition or a disability, and parents recognise that something is wrong with the baby, they usually wait for the child to improve. But a child with difficulty developing must be taken to an early intervention centre as early as possible because starting treatment benefits the baby, said doctors.
The early intervention centre also supports parents, said Dr Kar, as caring for a child with a disability demands a lot of the parents’ time and energy. The event saw Dr Jatin Ambekar drawing parents together in laughter as they practised Hassyasan, followed by a session on yoga for stress relief by Dr Pramod Khandekar, and specifically for mothers by Bhagyashree Radhakrishnan.
DEIC manager Dr Meenakshi Hable coordinated the programme. The take-home message, said Dr Kar, is that self-care is essential for parents. Remaining positive and taking joy in what your child can do helps the whole family. At the same time, Dr Kar added that World Birth Defects Day reminds women to visit a doctor before pregnancy and to enquire about preventive measures such as taking folic acid.
