By Jack Beresford
Copyright newsweek
An Ohio mom has revisited the moment her routine ultrasound while pregnant with her first child took a shocking turn.
Marie Filatov, 25, from Cincinnati, posted a video to TikTok under the handle @mariemomlife detailing what happened while she was pregnant with her daughter, Myla, back in 2022. The clip has been watched more than 430,000 times.
“I was thrilled to have my first baby with my fiancé Jack,” Filatov told Newsweek. “It seemed like a completely normal pregnancy until we went in for the 20 week anatomy scan.”
It was supposed to be a routine scan and one that every woman undergoes at the midway point of their pregnancy. Filatov’s was different though.
Even now, Filatov says she can still recall how the doctor that day turned to them and said: “Everything looks great there’s just one thing: she’s missing her left hand.”
“I was in complete shock, Jack was just devastated,” Filatov said. “At the time it felt like our world was falling apart.”
Marie Filatov went for an ultrasound.
Filatov felt a million thoughts racing through her head in that moment.
“We were so worried what her future would look like, we were worried if everything else was going to be okay with her, did she have any other life threatening or life altering concerns?” she said. “I felt like I was in a bad dream.”
Myla would eventually be born with a limb reduction defect. According to the CDC, around 1 in every 2,100 babies born in the U.S. has a limb reduction defect.
“They weren’t 100 percent sure what the cause was but suspected it was a vascular event such as a blood clot very early on in pregnancy while her arm was forming,” Filatov said.
Though both Filatov and her partner had been worried about how Myla would find life without a left arm. That all changed the minute they met her for the first time.
“As soon as she was born we knew everything would be okay and she was just perfect,” Filatov said. “She’s impressed us every step of the way since.”
Myla has not been held back by her disability. She’s hit all of her development milestones and has learned key skills like how to climb and hold cups. She’s able to play with any toy her parents give her and shows no fear when it comes to taking on new challenges.
Myla as a baby and toddler.
“Her latest challenge has been figuring out how to climb up slides since she can’t grip onto one side, but even that she’s overcome by figuring out a unique way to pull herself up,” Filatov said.
While Myla already had an older half brother, she’s recently become a big sister to another sibling, Hayes—and loves to help Filatov look after him.
“She absolutely adores him,” Filatov said. “She loves to play mommy with him, she feeds him bottles and helps me change him.”
When Filatov decided to share the video detailing her daughter’s birth story and what followed, she did so not to dwell on the unexpected news they received during her ultrasound but to celebrate everything that has come since.
“I was just looking back on how far we’ve come from being terrified and sad of what life would look like for Myla to seeing her absolutely thrive and overcome every challenge that comes her way and wanted to share,” Filatov said.
“We are just so proud of her and I hope that the world will be kind to people who look different and will celebrate uniqueness. I hope that other parents that receive similar news find my video and know that their kids will be okay.”
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