S2:9: Leandra Perrozzi: My Daughter Was Born Unable To Swallow

This week we are joined by our final guest of the season, Leandra Perrozzi, and WOW what an emotional episode this is.

Leandra joins us to speak about how her motherhood experience went from having a blissful pregnancy to birthing a child with complex medical needs at only 33 weeks, following a placental abruption. Her daughter Alba has OA/TOF, a rare congenital condition of the oesophagus (food pipe) and/or trachea (airway) that affects 1 in every 3,500 people and ultimately means she was born without the ability to swallow. Alba also has other medical conditions, none of which were detected before she was born. She shares with us how her and her husband have navigated the unknown with Christ by their side, how they have learnt about and received training in Albas medical needs, how Leandra has been able to return to work with Alba now attending nursery and we discuss a big topic...what "weaning" looks like given Alba's conditions.

We want to thank Leandra for coming on the podcast and sharing her very moving journey with us; we hope through her vulnerability we can help to spread awareness of Albas condition and the charity that plays a huge part in supporting them "TOFS". There were lots of tears recording this so this is just a heartfelt heads up in case you’d rather skip one of our 'heavier' episodes, or maybe save this one and come back to it later.

If you would like to find out more about Albas condition please visit https://tofs.org.uk/what-is-oa-tof/ & if you would like to help support Alba & other children’s stories please visit Leandra’s fundraising page ahead of the 2025 London Marathon!

Right, let’s get into it!

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Love Alexandra & Khadija x