Deaf parents face the challenge of child-rearing

Not being kept awake all night by their babies’ crying is a major problem for Jackie and Steven Overall.

Jackie and Steven, who are both deaf, are the parents of 10-week-old twin girls, Emma and Linda.

Whilst most parents face months of sleepless nights when they bring a new baby home, Jackie and Steven are confronted with the opposite problem of not being able to hear the babies crying.

However, this does not mean they get to sleep peacefully through the night.

Emma and Linda sleep in their parents’ room at the moment, and they have a special sensor device that picks up the babies’ crying. It activates a lamp in the lounge, so if Jackie or Steven are in there they know to go and check on the babies.

At night, the sensor sets off a very bright light that shines in Jackie and Steven’s faces and wakes them up.

Jackie says the first time they brought Emma and Linda home from hospital they did not know what to do with them.

“The first time out of hospital it was hard for us for a few weeks, but now we can cope.”

Unfortunately, although the first sensor they had was designed to pick up babies crying, it was not sensitive enough and did not work

“Steven’s sister Julie had to stay the night and wake us when the babies were crying.”

Then for the next two weeks Jackie had to sleep with powerful hearing aids on both her ears so she would wake up.

This was very uncomfortable, and she says it was a great relief when they finally got a sensor that worked.

Communication is another difficulty for deaf parents.

Jackie says she and Steven will both talk and sign to Emma and Linda.

She is already doing that now when she talks to the girls.

“That way they get to know my voice.”

She says she does not know if there will be any difficulties when the girls start school, but that is a long way in the future.

“We don’t know what the girls will be like when they grow up.

“We will just have to wait and see.”

Both Emma and Linda can hear, and Jackie says it was very unlikely that they would have been born deaf as they would have been born deaf as both Jackie and Steven were born deaf after their mothers had rubella.

Looking after twins is a fulltime job, Jackie says.

Steven is often working shifts at nighttime, so Jackie has to feed and bath Linda and Emma before bedtime.

She has received three months home help, which means a neighbour is able to come over and give her a break to have a rest.

Jackie says they were also grateful to Steven’s mum and his sister Julie for all their help.

Jackie says the girls are very well behaved, and Linda sleeps right through the night.

She says it is difficult for her to feed both the babies when she is on her own, but when Steven is there, they bottle feed a baby each.

“Steven is a wonderful father.”

They have learned to cope, she says.

While both Steven and Jackie’s parents have other grandchildren and twins run in the family, Linda and Emma are the first grandchildren who are twins.

Jackie found out she was having twins in the second month of pregnancy, and says she was the only woman in her antenatal class to have twins.

Jackie says the doctor had told her most twins were born prematurely and by Casearean section.

Luckily for Jackie neither of these things happened, although three weeks after the birth she haemorrhaged badly and had to return to hospital.

Steven’s mother, Barbara Overall, says this meant Jackie was very tired and run down for a while.

However Mrs Overall says they seem to be getting along really well now.

“They seem to be managing well.

“I tell you what, though, its not easy. I had them (Linda and Emma) on Saturday night, and it is a big job!”

Mrs Overall says the first couple of weeks were particularly difficult, when the sensor was not working properly.

“If Jackie wore her hearing aid to bed she could hear a boby on one side of the bed, but couldn’t hear the other side.

“She wasn’t getting much sleep because of that.

“The hearing aid also tended to squeal a bit.”

It was a great relief for the whole family when they got a new sensor, Mrs Overall says.

“We (Mrs Overall) and Steven’s sister Julie) were working it in shifts to wake them up to feed the babies, and I thought ‘Oh God, we have to get something jacked up here.’”

The light system is working very well now, Mrs Overall says.

“Once we got the light it really relieved the tension.

“It really worked out well.”

Photo caption: Steven and Jackie Overall with twins Emma and Linda.