We hope to see you at 2:00pm EST on Sunday, January 7th for our monthly support group! We will be welcoming three O moms who will each share about their own pregnancy & delivery, their O baby's medical journey, and where they are now. As always, everyone from the omphalocele community is welcome (parents of new O babies, experienced parents with older O children, pregnant mothers or expectant family members, grandparents, friends, adult omphalocele survivors) and you are all an important part of our group!

Michelle Stephens
Michelle is a stay at home mom to almost 4 year old, Hannah. Hannah was born with a moderate-sized O containing bowels and partial liver along with congenital heart defects of Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD) and an overriding thoracic aorta. Her omphalocele was repaired at 3 days old. Hannah’s hospital stay was a total of 231 days which included a g-tube surgery, a VSD repair, and a tracheostomy after being diagnosed with bronchomalacia. After a year of being home, she underwent a second open heart surgery and airway reconstruction which repaired her left bronchus and helped get her off ventilator support during the day. In total, she has undergone 7 surgeries for her various complexities. Despite her challenges, she is a happy, feisty girl who just likes to be a kid. Michelle says Hannah still has a long way to go but as always, she takes it one day at a time and thanks God for her miracle baby everyday.

Faith Smith
Faith has two amazing boys. Her oldest son, Noah, age 8, was born with an omphalocele. He was diagnosed at 20 weeks with a huge omphalocele that included his liver, intestines, and part of his pancreas. She hopes that sharing Noah's story will help spread awareness about omphaloceles.

Katy Dumelle
Katy is a Product Manager at Turnitin, an educational technology company, and former math teacher. Katy lives in Oregon with her 12 month old happy, healthy O baby and husband. After getting the omphalocele diagnosis at her 20 week anatomy scan, countless MFM appointments, an all-clear amniocentesis, and a very supportive medical team, she delivered baby Parker via planned c-section at 39 weeks. Parker’s small O was fully repaired when she was just 40 hours old and she spent a total of 6 days in the NICU. Parker also has a VSD that is being monitored, but is otherwise a “normal,” fun, energetic one year old.