The nurse told us our baby had albinism”
My parents and brother came up with us, and I was so grateful to have their support. Eight hours later at 7.52 am, our baby girl, Arliyah, was born.
I held her in my arms, looking at her incredible locks of white hair. I thought to myself, “She’s just like her daddy.” Chayd and I had super blonde hair as young kids so it wasn’t a shock for me to see how white Arliyah’s hair was.
One of the nurses came in and sat next to me as I tried to breastfeed Arliyah. She asked me if I had ever heard of the word albinism. I looked at her and said, “Nope.” She said, “What about albino?”
I replied in a joking manner, “Everyone in high school used to joke Chayd and I were so fair, we would have an albino baby.”
She grabbed my hand and said, “I think your baby may be albino. We want to put a cover above her cot, as we think the lights are hurting her eyes.”
I remember crying and yelling at them to stop because my baby was fine.
There was nothing wrong with her and I didn’t want to hear about this albinism because she didn’t have it.
