Dana and Rebecca couldn't take their babies to the shops without attracting unwanted stares

Dana Cruceanu felt the weight of every stranger's eyes on her as she pushed her baby through the grocery store in his pram.

It wasn't an uncommon experience for the new mum, and it never got easier.

"People look at you really funny like, 'What the hell is that?'" she tells 9honey.

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Sometimes someone would approach her with platitudes that only made her feel more guilty, cooing "poor thing" at her son.

Maverick was just five months old when he was diagnosed with hip dysplasia, the most common musculoskeletal birth anomaly in the world. Watch the video above.

It occurs when the hip ball-and-socket joint does not develop normally, causing 'clicking' hips that require intensive treatment to correct.

Dana knew hip dysplasia runs in her husband's family, but she was still completely blindsided when Maverick was diagnosed after a "precautionary" scan.

"I thought I'll go in there, they'll tell me it's fine, and I'll go home," she says, but she knew something was wrong when the room went silent. 

"It was literally the complete opposite. I went in and got told he needs to be in a brace for 23 hours a day, for three months."

It's almost the exact same thing Rebecca Marshall was told when her first child Paige was diagnosed with hip dysplasia at three months old.

As a paediatric nurse, she'd seen the condition before but never dreamed it would affect her family.

"Everyone was like, 'you'll be fine,'" she tells 9honey, "but I was trying to navigate new motherhood as well, and I had postnatal depression."

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Her medical training helped her cope with the diagnosis and navigate the public health system to get Paige treatment, but Rebecca still struggled emotionally.

Especially because the time that Paige had to spend in a Pavlik harness to help her hips develop normally kept getting longer.

"It was always another six weeks, another six weeks, another six weeks," Rebecca says.

No one could say when her daughter would be free of the brace and the unwelcome stares it attracted.

Dana faced the same setbacks with Maverick; what was supposed to be a 12-week stint in a corrective brace dragged on for months.

It turned his legs outwards and meant Dana had to buy new clothes and baby gear that could accommodate the bulk. Rebecca had to buy a whole new car seat.

As well as the practical issues, Dana battled postnatal depression and anxiety and spent days on end crying about the situation.

"I couldn't come to terms with the fact that he had it, and I carried so much guilt," she admits.

The guilt only worsened when she took Maverick out in public and had to face the stares of strangers who didn't understand.

"They make you feel like you're doing the wrong thing by your child, even though you're doing what's best for them," Dana says.

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Rebecca agrees that there's a real stigma around hip braces, borne from a lack of awareness and education about hip dysplasia.

She was relieved when Paige was finally able to get out of braces for good after more than six months of treatment.

Then Rebecca had her second child, Imogen, and had to hear those five daunting words all over again; 'your daughter has hip dysplasia'.

After going through the public system for Paige's treatment, Rebecca opted to go private with Imogen, who spent four months in a rhino brace.

"It was better managed [and] a lot quicker," Rebecca claims.

Dana also went private halfway through Maverick's treatment and has been happier with the level of care in the private system, though both mums know it's not an option for everyone.

They wish there were more resources and support services available to families of children with hip dysplasia to make the journey easier.

Dana raises awareness by sharing Maverick's journey on TikTok, where she explains the realities of hip dysplasia and supports other parents who have just had a child diagnosed.

"I wanted to show that it just becomes a part of your life, and that there are other people out there going through the same thing," she explains.

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Meanwhile, Rebecca is advocating for the Victorian hip dysplasia registry (VicHip), a registry of children diagnosed in Victoria designed to learn more about hip dysplasia and how to diagnose and manage it.

The more Aussie families get involved, the better the outcomes will be for the next generation – like her son Darcy, four months, who has shown some hip abnormalities too.

All newborn babies are checked for hip dysplasia in their first few days and the tests are repeated again at six weeks, but kids still fall through the cracks and parents need to know what to look for.

The condition is more common in babies with a family history, breech births, females and firstborn children, and common signs include hips that 'click', uneven legs, and delayed sitting or walking.

None of Rebecca's children are in braces right now and Maverick is down to just a few hours a day, so Dana doesn't have to deal with the uncomfortable stares anymore.

But she's certain that if there was a little more awareness and education about hip dysplasia, no new mum would have to feel the shame she did just taking her baby to the shops.

The aim of VicHip is to learn more about hip dysplasia, its causes and find better ways to diagnose and manage the condition. The study is recruiting here.

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