Why does Plagiocephaly Matter?

Why does Plagiocephaly matter?

One thing we always stress when it comes to plagiocephaly is that eventually even really significant asymmetry becomes unnoticeable. As a child approaches the height of an adult, we no longer look down onto the top of their head, and hence the asymmetry becomes incredibly difficult to visualise. You can read more about this here.

In addition, even if an absolute asymmetry does not change (CVA remaining constant), the head itself grows, and a 12mm difference becomes proportionately less significant on a fully grown head versus that of a small baby. We also endeavour to remind parents that there are no functional or medical consequences to uncorrected plagiocephaly, or brachycephaly – both are surprising common and confer no disadvantage to the person at all.

So why does it matter? Why are we here, if there are no lasting cosmetic or health effects on a baby from cranial asymmetry? Does this mean that the doctors, health visitors, paediatricians and a plethora of other medical support professionals are correct? That we should just “enjoy our babies” and stop worrying so much about aesthetics?

In our opinion, the answer is a resounding no. And the reason is because there is a critically important factor left out of that equation – You, and your mental health.

We know that between 10 and 20% of women develop a mental illness during pregnancy, or during the first year of their baby’s life. The cost of this is a staggering £8.1 billion per year’s birth in the UK alone, and suicide is one of the leading causes of maternal death during pregnancy and that first year. Perinatal mental health problems can compromise the emotional, cognitive and possibly physical development of a child, and there are long term consequences and costs to this too, with 72% of the cost to society relating to the child, not the mother. Maternal depression and anxiety frequently go hand in hand, but perinatal anxiety alone has been calculated to cost approx. £35,000 per case. It is also estimated that around half of all cases of perinatal depression and anxiety go undetected, which means these women are not able to access appropriate treatment.

In our opinion, cranial asymmetry is a significantly under-recognised cause of poor maternal mental health in new mothers. We have talked to thousands of women, who experience anxiety, guilt, shame and worry, caused by the shape of their baby’s head. Women who are losing already severely curtailed sleep, who experience feelings of failure and overwhelming sadness when they look at their baby. It is not so long ago that I also experienced these emotions as I watched my own daughter’s head flatten. I remain disgusted by the ease with which these feelings are dismissed and minimised by the health profession, or manipulated by other companies for financial gain. It is, in my experience, often not enough to tell the mother of a 4 month old baby with plagiocephaly that when she walks down the aisle to get married, no one will be noticing her head shape (although this is true). Women are being made to feel shallow for fixating on such a “trivial” matter, when their baby is otherwise healthy and thriving. It is not enough to simply dismiss this obvious source of poor mental health in the mother, even on the basis of no ill-effects to the child themselves.

Plagiocephaly matters because mothers matter. The mental health of new mothers matters, in whatever way you choose to measure it. The most rewarding part of our work here, is to be able to reduce some of that anxiety, through education, peer-support and use of the Perfect Noggin.