Babies with congenital heart defects are usually identified during pregnancy, sadly Toby's was not picked up on despite multiple ultrasound scans.

After he was born the midwife heard a heart murmur when she was doing his Top to Toe check. An Echo confirmed that he had a Ventricular Septal Defect but we were reassured these are very common and could close on it's own. 3 months later we met with the Cardiologist who did a thourough ECG and ECHO where we found out Toby had a large hole in his heart as well as other defects, he had been born with Tetralogy of Fallot.

Our little boy had open heart surgery at Alder Hay when he was just 20 weeks old, it was absolutely terrifying, but we had already had so much support from Tiny Tickers to understand his condition, the surgery and what to expect from the hospital stay it took a bit of the stress away.

So I'm taking part in this challenge as a thank you for the support we've received from Tiny Tickers and to try and get more sonographers better trained in identifying congenital heart defects during pregnancy, Toby has been very lucky, not all babies cope with CHD and can be very poorly.