Parents are shocked when they see their baby born with big smiles on its face. When doctors finally figure out why, everyone stops talking.
When Ayla Summer Mucha was born in December 2021, she came into the world with a huge smile on her face, which shocked her parents.
Mom and dad weren’t happy at first when they saw their newborn daughter’s permanent smile, which was caused by a very rare condition. But they fell in love with Ayla, and now the cute girl with the heartwarming smile is a social media star.
Read on to find out more about this happy baby!
Cristina Vercher and her husband Blaize Mucha from Australia were so excited to finally meet their baby girl on December 30, 2021. They had been waiting nine months.
But during the C-section birth, the doctors told the new parents some very bad news.
Both of Ayla Summer Mucha’s mouths were too big for their bodies, which is called bilateral macrostomia.
It is very uncommon for the corners of the mouth to not fuse together during pregnancy, which is called a facial cleft.
The National Library of Medicine says that only 14 cases of this malformation have been written about in medical journals.
Shock all around
The fact that Ayla’s mouth opened up so wide caught her parents by surprise. Ultrasounds had not shown any problems.
Blaize, 22, and the new mom, now 23 years old, “were instantly worried” when they saw Ayla for the first time because the condition was “obvious” because she “was so tiny.”
“Neither Blaize nor I knew about this condition, and I had never met a person born with a macrostomia,” Vercher from Adelaide said. “That was a huge surprise.”
Not only the parents were shocked. Also, doctors weren’t ready to deal with a baby who had bilateral macrostomia.
Since it took several hours for a doctor to answer, this made the whole thing even scarier. This caused more problems because the hospital didn’t know much about or could help with such a rare condition. While being a mother, she also said, “All I could think about was where I went wrong.”
Doctors told the worried parents that there was nothing they could have done differently, though. Cristina thought that she had done something wrong during her pregnancy or “caused” her daughter’s illness.
She said, “As a mother, all I could think about was where I might have gone wrong.” Despite this, they were told that they had nothing to do with the problem and were not responsible for it after days of genetic tests and scans.
The Muchas could now focus on helping Ayla deal with her condition, which also makes it hard for her to do things like latching on and sucking.
This is one reason why parents are often told to have surgery on their newborns.
The pleased family
As the young couple set out to learn more about the condition, they decided to share Ayla’s story on social media. On TikTok, her unique smile got 6.5 million likes.
There was no way the Muchas could have imagined getting so much support.
“I just read on Doctor Google that there have been only 14 cases found.” She is really unique. “Be proud, mom,” writes one person.
Someone else on the Internet says this about Ayla’s smile: “She is beautiful and perfect just the way she is.” I smiled too because of her.
Ayla’s loyal fans quickly shut down a small group of trolls who were making fun of the helpless child.
“Please don’t listen to those mean people; your daughter is beautiful.” “She’s such an Angel,” says one. “Oh my goodness. You’re so cute! “Don’t pay attention to those mean comments; your little cuteness is just too sweet,” said someone else.
A third says, “You are a strong woman and have a beautiful daughter. I’m sorry to see those thoughtless comments.”
Vercher said in response to the mean comments about her cute baby, “I would tell everyone to be kind and accepting.”
If something like that happened in your life, she said, “you would hope that people would treat you and your children with the same respect.” She also said that things “like this” could happen to anyone. “Social media is a split space. “Unfortunately, you can’t change the way other people act.”
Based on the nice comments and support, Vercher says, “We will not stop talking about our experiences and favorite memories because we are so proud.”
Even though it hasn’t been confirmed, it looks like Ayla, who just turned 2, had surgery to fix her big mouth and succeeded. The surgery left the little girl with almost no scars. In November 2023, she became a big sister to baby brother Sonny.
It’s great that the Muchas didn’t let the hate online stop them from sharing videos and pictures of their sweet little Ayla.
What do you think about this lovely family? What do you think? Then share this story so we can hear what other people think!