04/01/2025
Hi everyone!
For some reason Facebook won't let me upload a video so I'm having to write a post instead.
Since I had my baby 9 months ago I've been having some issues with my voice. There are lots of things that can affect your voice after having a baby so it's unsure where the issues have initially came from and after visiting a few different ENT specialists, eventually one of them found some damage on my vocal chords.
The good news is it's really common for singers and people that work with children and it's pretty minor damage considering the extent to which I use my voice that they are confident I can get rid of in a few months with the correct steps.
To hear me talk and sing majority of the time and see me you probably wouldn't know anything was wrong however vocal chords are an extremely fragile muscle and once seriously damaged it can be very hard to repair and can actually leave you without a voice completely so it's super important that I do as the professionals advise and get rid of any damage before it gets worse.
The classes haven't been the cause of the damage but due to having to use my voice in my higher register a lot during them and using my speaking voice a lot I wasn't doing myself any favours by continuing them at the moment and was advised to put them on hold for the time being. For those that don't know singing is my main career and I have been told to focus on that for now and reduce my vocal use elsewhere when I can. Finding the balance of over use and under use can be quite tricky.
It also affected my mental health a lot and rather than hearing the positives that it's minor and is manageable and reversible, I took it as this is the end of the world and it really knocked my confidence as any sort of voice issues are really scary for a singer. The guilt of having to decide to stop classes also hit hard which is why I haven't said much about it sooner, but I'm starting to think more positively about it and am realising that it could be so much worse.
So at the moment I'm working with speech and language therapist and my vocal coach to repair the damage and then restrengthen my voice so that the damage goes and I hopefully don't do it any more. It'll be at least a couple of months before I can start classes again and I'll be playing it by ear over the next wee while..
Thank you for understanding and your support and here's hoping we'll be back to classes soon!
