Seeing her unborn daughter's eyes open during an ultrasound became one Minnesota mom's favorite parts of pregnancy.
Those fleeting moments brought Victoria LaBrie comfort during months of uncertainty, but after Hazel was born, the same feature that had filled her with joy took on a heartbreaking new meaning.
Victoria's pregnancy was closely monitored after a 20-week anatomy scan revealed she had hydrocephalus, a condition involving a build-up of fluid in the brain.
...
As a result, the 32-year-old underwent frequent ultrasounds through the remainder of her pregnancy.
"There were a couple of times during my third trimester when we actually got to see her eyes open on [the] ultrasound," Victoria told Newsweek. "The ultrasound tech assured me that it was completely normal for babies to open their eyes in the womb, just rare to catch it happening on ultrasound."
Those moments became especially meaningful because of the uncertainty surrounding Hazel's health.
"I was so scared throughout my pregnancy," Victoria said. "Seeing those little eyes open was this tiny bit of light during a time that felt really, really dark."
Victoria, who is also mom to her adopted biological half-sister Roni, 16, twin girls Harley and Harper, 8, and Colton, 6, said she would find herself hoping and praying for another glimpse, encouraging her unborn daughter to show her eyes one more time during appointments.
But when Hazel was born, those same wide-open eyes suddenly took on a very different meaning.
"I realized Hazel couldn’t blink immediately after delivery," Victoria said. "She came into the world with her eyes wide open. When the doctor handed her to me, I looked at my nurse and said, 'That’s not right, is it?'"
The nurse agreed something was unusual, and the following day Hazel was transferred by ambulance from the Twin Cities to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
Hazel was later diagnosed with Moebius syndrome, a rare neurological condition that can affect facial muscles and eye movement.
Today, Hazel still cannot blink on her own, but she has adapted remarkably well.
"She knows a world where hers are always open, and when something bothers them, she rubs them," Victoria said.
To protect her daughter's eyes from drying out, Victoria applies ointment at least six times a day and manually closes Hazel's eyelids while administering medication.
She also finds herself blinking for her daughter throughout the day.
"It’s become such a natural part of caring for her," Victoria said.
Victoria hopes other parents take away a message of hope, not fear.
"Maybe the moral of her story isn’t about being afraid of what might be wrong with your baby when you see something unusual on an ultrasound," she said. "Maybe it’s about realizing that no matter what life brings, you can look into your baby’s eyes and somehow feel that everything is going to be okay."
Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Charlotte Nisbet and Paul Donnelley.