Living a full life with clubfoot

My story began 31 years ago. I was born as the 3rd child in the family at the end of the 80’s, with clubfoot! By the time I was born my mom was already familiar with clubfoot since my sister who is 4 years older was also born with clubfoot. Back in the days there were no diagnostic techniques aimed specifically at clubfoot yet, at all.

The beginning…
I was born in December 1989 with bilateral clubfoot. While my left foot didn’t require any surgery, the right foot was treated in Budapest at the Semmelweis University Ortopaedic Clinic and I had surgery in the Budai Children’s Hospital. I only have memories of this time from pictures, medical records and funny family stories. Since I was so little I don’t remember any pain or ever feeling uncomfortable. I’m sure that the life I have now is thanks to my parents having tried all the different therapies, techniques and suggestions. They spared no time or energy and took us every 2 weeks to Budapest from a town in Veszprém county. Now let me hand over to my mother, since as a parent her story will give you a bit more insight.

The account of a clubfoot mom of two
When my first daughter was born, we only found out a few days later that she had clubfoot. She was born with a C-section and at that time the babies weren’t put together with their moms like today, so I didn’t even get to see her without clothes. I was shocked and really frightened when the doctor asked if I would be going to the examination to Budapest with my daughter? So it became clear to the doctor that I wasn’t aware that she wasn’t healthy, not to mention that I had no clue what a clubfoot actually was. Without having proper knowledge about this is a really scary thing… For my second pregnancy I was comforted that there is no way this baby will have clubfoot too, the chance for that is basically zero. Despite this our second daughter was also born with this deformity, 4 years later. In the beginning she was treated at our hometown, but later we had to travel to Budapest with her too, since the hospital here couldn’t perform the surgery. This surgery is a procedure that lengthens the Achilles tendon and helps to improve flexibility of the ankle.
The situation today is different now since thanks to ultrasound scans you know up front about these things. Of course despite this the shock and fear is no less in parents today, but at least it allows them some time to be a little more prepared and also to read up on the topic to have more information on clubfoot.
At first both kids had plaster casts every 2 weeks on both legs. This was a really difficult period, it’s not that easy to bath a little baby, but when both her legs are in a cast from toes to upper thigh, well that is an extra level of difficulty. They were hoping that with this method both feet could be „fixed” in the right position, but unfortunately for both of our daughters only 1 was successfully corrected, the other foot had to be operated on when they were 6 months old. I know this is difficult, but you have to believe in things getting better and in the healing process.
Afterwards one of the legs was only in a short cast, fixed in position with bandages. During this phase the babies movement and the everyday activities were somewhat easier. Often times I felt that us parents were more affected by the whole casting phase than our daughters. Reason being that when they started crawling the plaster cast was shattered to pieces near the knees and the part holding the toes was also gone by the time we had to go to the next check up. We familiarised ourselves with the physical therapy steps and we learned to operate the electrotherapy equipment (which we received as part of our social insurance plan) so we could use it at home for the designated period. Once they started walking there was no need for the casting anymore, there were regular check ups too, however we had to put their shoes on the „wrong way”, so that it would hold the inwards pointing foot the opposite way. There were numerous funny situations during this time. Many people would just give us a disapproving stare without saying a word, but many others would kindly let us know that „Excuse me, but you put the shoes on the wrong way.” After explaining the reason for that, they would apologise. Thanks to our persistence and all the treatments both our daughters can walk in a normal way, they lived and still live their everyday lives as any other healthy person. We never kept them from any kind of sports, when they wanted to try something. Obviously the foot that had surgery cannot withstand the same physical load as the other one, but it very rarely resulted in any problems in their day-to-day lives. As a result of the casting period one foot is slightly smaller than the other (as a result of different amount of time spent in casts). The load of the spine is thus slightly unequal, so this had to be countered with swimming and special spine physiotherapy exercises.
To achieve progress and improvement the regular medical check ups, the consistence, persistence and sometimes also the strictness of the parents is essential (the physiotherapy, seeing the treatment through even if the child objects). As a result of the developments of the past 30 years, this birth defect can be treated really effectively.

Living a full life with a scar
I had my scar my whole life. It’s a fairly long one on my heel, I had 12 stitches. When we were small we used to joke around with my sister that we had our special power there. We have the exact same foot, deformed in the same angle and our surgical scar looked exactly the same as well. Since it was always there, I have never though of it to be a bad thing. Even my childhood friends thought it to be a funny weird thing that my right foot was 1 size smaller than the left. I could always make others smile with this fun fact. To be honest I don’t mind it at all. I am not different in any way, I’m not „special”. I’m an adult woman, who lives her jolly and sporty life with a scar on her heel.
I recall many different therapies we tried out. Electrotherapy, Tens machine, Physiotherapy, swimming and many others. Sports was never one of my strong sides, but it wasn’t because of my foot. As a chubby teenager, PE and motion in general was not for me. Since then I work as a professional yoga instructor and I think I figured things out. Not everyone has to be an expert in pitching soft ball. The goal should be that we teach children and adults to know their bodies and try to push their limits. I got familiar with sports in my teens. For my big weight loss I had help from a personal trainer, who considering my clubfoot limitations still pushed me to get moving. However I wasn’t forced to run or do exercises which could have caused Plantar fasciitis in my soles. That’s when I started believing that thanks to exercise my life got easier. I was trying to find my way to keep in shape. After a while I found yoga, which completely changed my life. My clubfoot was no obstacle anymore, on the contrary! I learned a lot thanks to it. The lack of symmetry in our body is not necessarily the result of surgery, but the different amount of time spent in plaster cast/splints. Due to the difference in size, my spine leaned slightly towards one side of the sacrum and as a result my right leg is a bit shorter.
So it’s not just the foot length that is shorter, but my leg from the sacrum until the heel. Yoga helped a lot to combat this asymmetry. Although these are not very visible issues, but for our body even a few millimetres of difference is significant. This is where I felt that I had to share this knowledge with others too. Even a „weakness” from birth doesn’t mean that we have to live an inactive life. We can live life to the fullest, the way we want. As I spent more time digging into studies and sports I decided that the time has come to work specifically with mothers-to-be. As a yoga instructor for pregnant women I consider it really important to know about all type of examinations that aim to screen for different disorders. It’s my professional opinion that I have to inform the mothers-to-be that clubfoot is NOT a „sickness”, which would prevent our child from having a complete life. Obviously if the suspicion is confirmed during the gestational age it is essential to get more information, to get help from professionals, organizations or others who are familiar with clubfoot. Eszter and her husband have created a website and a community that does fill a gap.

Clubfoot screening for mothers-to-be
Health and genetic screenings always played a big part in my life. Prevention is key in maintaining our health, this also brings the focus on how important the different medical screenings are. As a 32 week pregnant mother-to-be I consider it extremely important to attend all the screenings that can eliminate different potential problems, even screenings which are not part of the prenatal care. As a clubfoot adult, I discussed with my doctor already before getting pregnant how this birth defect can be identified. The doctor of course said that there is very little chance for our baby to be impacted by this problem. My sons feet are examined on all the different examinations. The bones are looking completely healthy, so there is no suspicion at all that he would have clubfoot. Of course if someone finds out that there is a possibility of clubfoot, even though being scared they have to think through all the steps. They have to know that they are not alone, there are parents in the same situation who feel it’s their duty to provide the right information and share the knowledge. Obviously everybody wants their child to be completely healthy when born, that’s how it should be. Nevertheless, don’t forget that even as a clubfoot baby/adult you can have a completely normal life. You can do sports, you can go hiking, you can have children and just have an awesome life.