We decided from birth to have Emilia sleep on her back as we felt it was the safest way for babies to sleep and it was recommended in every baby class we went to, midwifes and nurses at the hospital, baby books and websites. I was aware of plagiocephaly (flat on one side) before Emilia was born and was certain, as most new mums are, that this would not happen to us. I would watch out for it and know what to do to prevent it.

Because babies skulls are so soft and pliable they still develop once they are born and any external pressure can cause changes to the growth of the skull – like sleeping on their backs. When Emilia was 2 months old we noticed a very very slight flat spot on the right side of her head. (She had a preference for this side and I tried my best to keep repositioning her) We mentioned our concerns to our paediatrician who assured us it would round out once she spent less time on her back and started sitting and crawling. She said we should increase tummy time which we did. That being said, Emilia was never on her back when awake. From the beginning she wanted to be upright, looking around and wanted to see EVERYTHING. The only time she was on her back or had pressure on her head was when she was sleeping or during nappy changes.

When Emilia reached 3 months her flat spot hadn’t rounded out but it wasn’t worse either. It was the same so we moved her to her own room and her crib at this time. This is when I believe her mild plagiocephaly turned into brachycephaly. From month 3 to month 4 her head became almost completely flat on the back due to sleeping on her back in her crib. Even with turning her head from side to side she always went back to sleeping face up. Again, I mentioned my concern to our paediatrician who again said it was nothing to worry about. I ordered a craniometer https://mimosbabypillow.com/pages/craniometer to measure Emilia’s head. Her measurements confirmed what I thought – that she had brachycephaly. Her head was wider than it was longer and it had a cephalic index of 102. Babies should be around 85. (To work out the cephalic or cranial index you take the width measurement divided by the length and x 100. (CW/CL x 100)

I was no longer happy to just ‘wait and see’ considering she was never on her back when awake. We booked an appointment with a specialist who did a scan. He confirmed our suspicions. She indeed had brachycephaly with mild plagiocephaly. You can see from the scan that her head is wider than longer. He said that he wanted to give her one month to see how her head is growing and at 5 months if it is not rounding out naturally he wanted to give her a head band (or helmet as they are sometimes called)

This is a scan of Emilia’s head. You can see it is almost flat at the back. I have also inserted two pictures that show the difference between brachycephaly and normocephaly.

Cue: Mum guilt and uncontrollable tears….

One of the things that upset me the most was that she was born with a perfectly rounded head and because we chose for her to sleep on her back because we believed (and still do) that it is the safest way for babies to sleep, we caused her head to be flat. How did I let this happen, how was I not ‘The Perfect Mum’ ?!

For the next month we did side sleeping in the daytime and side sleeping until her dream feed when she was observed on a monitor but it made little to no difference. At 5 months we went back and had another scan. Her head was not rounding out and it continued to grow wider. Our fabulous doctor, Dr. Charl from Cape Town (which was comforting as living in Dubai it is always nice to have a fellow ‘Saffa’ make you feel at home) scanned her head and sent off the measurements and her head band was made.