Mariangel’s Story: Clubfoot, Community, and Creating What Was Missing
Release Date: 01/19/2026
Regina’s Story: DeGeorge Syndrome, Congenital Heart Disease, and Fierce Maternal Advocacy
Born For This Stories
There is a moment in many parents’ lives when everything shifts — often quietly, in a doctor’s office or an ultrasound room. In this episode of Born For This Stories, Johanna and Peter sit down with Regina, a mother navigating the complex realities of raising a medically fragile child with DeGeorge Syndrome and a congenital heart condition. From a prenatal diagnosis to open-heart surgery just days after birth, Regina shares what it means to live inside long hospital stays, constant monitoring, and the emotional weight of advocating for a child who cannot yet speak for herself. This...
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Marcia’s Story: Advocacy, Identity, and Raising a Child With Complex Needs
Born For This Stories
Some parenting journeys reshape not only how you care for your child, but how you see the world. In this episode of Born For This Stories, Johanna and Peter sit down with Marcia, a mother whose journey into medical parenting required her to navigate complex diagnoses, cultural expectations, and the ongoing work of advocacy. Marcia shares how becoming a parent to a child with unique needs challenged her assumptions, strengthened her voice, and ultimately transformed her sense of identity. This conversation explores the emotional and practical realities of raising a child with complex needs —...
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Mariangel’s Story: Clubfoot, Community, and Creating What Was Missing
Born For This Stories
Some diagnoses arrive quietly, but they change everything. In this episode of Born For This Stories, Johanna and Peter sit down with Mariangel, a Venezuelan-Canadian mother of two whose daughter was born with clubfoot. What began as shock and uncertainty after birth became a journey shaped by resilience, family support, and a deep commitment to making sure her daughter and other children like her were never left out. Mariangel shares what it was like discovering her daughter’s clubfoot after a C-section, navigating early treatment, learning to advocate within the medical system, and opening...
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Rebecca’s Story (Part 3): Healing Juvenile Arthritis Through Gut Health, Diet, and Community Support
Born For This Stories
Healing doesn’t always look the way we expect, and it rarely happens all at once. In the final part of Rebecca’s three-part story, we explore what long-term healing looked like after stepping fully into a gut-centered, holistic approach for her daughter’s severe juvenile idiopathic arthritis. This episode focuses on the slow, steady work of rebuilding the immune system, restoring gut health, and creating an environment where healing could actually take root. Rebecca shares how food, sourcing, detoxification, nervous system regulation, and community support became the foundation for her...
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Rebecca’s Story (Part 2): Choosing a Different Path After Juvenile Arthritis
Born For This Stories
When the standard treatment plan doesn’t feel right, what happens next? In Part 2 of Rebecca’s three-part story, we continue her family’s journey after her daughter’s devastating diagnosis of severe juvenile idiopathic arthritis. This episode explores what happened when Rebecca chose to step outside conventional care and pursue a radically different approach. An approach rooted in nutrition, detoxification, gut health, and environmental changes. Rebecca shares the emotional weight of making high-stakes decisions for her child, the isolation that can come with choosing a nontraditional...
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Rebecca’s Story (Part 1): When Juvenile Arthritis Hides in Plain Sight
Born For This Stories
What if your child looks healthy, happy, and pain-free, but their body is quietly fighting a war you can’t see? In Part 1 of this three-part series, Johanna and Peter sit down with Rebecca Hunter, mom of three and holistic medical mama, to share the beginning of her youngest daughter’s journey with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), one of the most severe cases her doctors had ever seen. What started as a ballet teacher noticing limited ankle movement slowly unraveled into a diagnosis that would change everything. Rebecca walks us through years of subtle signs, dismissed concerns,...
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Dr. Kim Tran’s Story (Part 2): Healing Eczema From the Inside Out
Born For This Stories
What if healing your child doesn’t mean doing more, but understanding why their body is responding the way it is? In the second part of Dr. Kim Tran’s story, Johanna and Peter continue the conversation about severe childhood eczema, gut health, and the long road from desperation to empowerment. This episode goes deeper into the science and the emotional reality of parenting a child whose symptoms don’t respond to conventional care, and the guilt parents carry when they’re told they “did everything right.” Dr. Tran explains why eczema is not a skin problem, how gut health and the...
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Dr. Kim Tran’s Story (Part 1): When Baby Eczema Is More Than Skin Deep
Born For This Stories
What if the thing you’re told is “just skin” is actually your child’s immune system crying out for help? In this powerful episode of Born For This Stories, Johanna and Peter sit down with Dr. Kim Tran, a pregnancy and pediatric chiropractor and functional medicine provider, to share her family’s journey through severe infant eczema. What began after a “beautiful, picture perfect home birth” quickly spiraled into sleepless nights, bleeding skin, and a medical system offering only temporary fixes. Dr. Tran walks us through what it’s like to be a holistic provider who suddenly...
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Susie & Zayn (Part 2): Advocacy, Survival, and the Fight No One Sees
Born For This Stories
Some stories don’t resolve quickly. Some live in the space between crisis and hope. Day after day. Month after month. In the emotional conclusion to this two-part series, Johanna and Peter continue their conversation with Suzie, whose son Zayn continues to battle hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) and a complex web of GI complications, strokes, feeding struggles, and life-altering medical decisions. Part 2 is a raw look at what happens after the first surgeries, after discharge, after everyone assumes you’re “in the clear.” Suzie shares the moments no parent forgets—the bloody...
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Susie & Zayn (Part 1): A Mother’s Fight Through Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome
Born For This Stories
Some parents walk into a diagnosis. Others are thrown into it without warning. In this powerful two-part story, Johanna and Peter sit down with Susie, mom of three and mother to Zayn — her brave “heart warrior” born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS). Part 1 walks listeners through the moment everything changed: an unsettling 18-week ultrasound, a devastating phone call during their gender reveal, and the first terrifying weeks inside the walls of Boston Children’s Hospital. Susie shares what it was like to navigate pregnancy in the height of the pandemic, advocate alone for...
info_outlineSome diagnoses arrive quietly, but they change everything.
In this episode of Born For This Stories, Johanna and Peter sit down with Mariangel, a Venezuelan-Canadian mother of two whose daughter was born with clubfoot. What began as shock and uncertainty after birth became a journey shaped by resilience, family support, and a deep commitment to making sure her daughter and other children like her were never left out.
Mariangel shares what it was like discovering her daughter’s clubfoot after a C-section, navigating early treatment, learning to advocate within the medical system, and opening herself up to the community when she needed it most. Her story highlights how vulnerability creates connection — and how lived experience can inspire meaningful change.
This conversation also explores how Mariangel transformed daily challenges, like diaper changes and adaptive footwear, into a purpose-driven brand designed to support clubfoot families around the world.
In this episode
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Discovering a clubfoot diagnosis at birth and processing early emotions
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The experience of navigating treatment, casting, bracing, and long-term correction
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How family history and community conversations shaped confidence and perspective
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The importance of asking questions and feeling truly supported by providers
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Why opening up created a village of unexpected support
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The day-to-day realities of caring for a baby in braces
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How frustration turned into creativity and purpose
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Creating adaptive clothing to meet a need that didn’t exist
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Ensuring children with clubfoot feel included, comfortable, and celebrated
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Advice for parents learning to balance advocacy with presence and joy
Learn more about Little Clubbers Apparel
Little Clubbers Apparel was created to support children with clubfoot and other orthopedic needs through thoughtful, inclusive design that makes everyday moments easier for families.
🌿 Website: www.littleclubbersapparel.com
📸 Instagram: @Littleclubbers_apparel
📘 Facebook: @LittleClubbers Apparel
🎵 TikTok: @Littleclubbers_apparel
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