And when the midwife held her up above my body, she was completely silent. And so the room was really dimly lit when I gave birth to her. Can you describe the moment of her birth? And Megan, in your book, Remedies for Sorrow, you write that something was really different with Anna from the moment she was born. But that's not what happened when Megan Nix gave birth to her daughter, Anna, in 2015. MEGHNA CHAKRABARTI: Usually when a baby first enters the world, there's that life affirming sound of the baby's cry and the joyous response from parents, family, medical caregivers in the room. Associate professor of maternal fetal medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. Lynn Yee, medical director of the Northwestern Memorial Hospital Women’s Infectious Disease Program. Gail Demmler-Harrison, professor at Baylor College of Medicine and pediatric infectious disease physician at Texas Children’s Hospital.ĭr. Physician-in-chief at Komansky Children’s Hospital, New York Presbyterian. Sallie Permar, chair of pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine. Megan Nix, author of “ Remedies for Sorrow: An Extraordinary Child, a Secret Kept from Pregnant Woman, and a Mother’s Pursuit of the Truth.” It’s a memoir about her experience with her daughter Anna, who has congenital CMV.ĭr. Today, On Point: A mother’s journey to understand her daughter’s diagnosis. One in every thousand babies born in the United States will have some symptom or long-term health problem due to congenital CMV.īut most doctors don't discuss it with expecting mothers during routine prenatal care. Megan Nix first learned about congenital CMV when her daughter was diagnosed in 2015. One virus causes more birth defects in American babies than any other nongenetic disease. (Photo By John Leyba/The Denver Post via Getty Images) Nix is writing about how CMV is more prevalent than anyone knows, and how doctors are not warning pregnant mothers. Anna has CMV, a virus contracted in utero that caused her to be born deaf. WHEAT RIDGE, CO - OCTOBER 31: Megan Nix share a quiet moment with her daughter Anna Wiedel (16 months) at their home October 313, 2016 in Wheat Ridge.

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