Most people assume people who need to attend an ear clinic in the north-east are those in their twilight years, but hearing impairment can occur at any age. This is what happened to one woman who lost 70 per cent of her while pregnant with her children.

Kate Llewellyn-Waters discovered she had a rare genetic defect called otosclerosis after giving birth to her children Beatrice, six, and Albert, five.

She only noticed she was finding it hard to hear during the third trimester of her first pregnancy. Doctors at Kingston Hospital confirmed her condition, as pregnancy hormones were causing bones in her ear to grow, resulting in her ear becoming blocked.

Her condition deteriorated, with Ms Llewellyn-Waters telling the Metro: “After having a C-section, I began to panic as I couldn’t hear Beatrix crying but she was crying, I was just deaf.”

During her second pregnancy, the mother-of-two lost a further ten per cent of hearing, and now depends on hearing aids to be able to understand her children.

She said: “I’ve found the hearing loss caused increased anxiety, especially as my fear is that I may not hear the children when they need me.”

Despite her hearing aids being “fantastic”, her children have learnt to be more patient, and she has set up alarms and monitors around the house so she can hear her kids better.

Ms Llewellyn-Waters is extremely young to suffer from such drastic hearing impairment, telling the news provider: “I could go totally deaf if I had a third child, but I don’t regret for one moment having children.”

While otosclerosis can worsen during pregnancy as a result of hormonal changes, the exact cause of it is unknown and it cannot be prevented.

Tio find out more about ear syringing in Newcastle, get in touch the North East Clinic team today!