Kathleen wrote, "Ok. So, who actually lives in an area where plastic
surgeons will actually agree to make palatal obturators for cleft babies?"

"Plates" as they are called are fitted to every baby who has a cleft that I
have worked with (about 5) within about 24 hours of birth.  But so thick, so
clumsy and so unwieldy that the upper gum ridge is *huge* and precludes
latching.  Furthermore, the plastic surgeon who choreographs the whole
exercise has so successfully succeeded in convincing the mother that she
"cannot" breastfeed by the second time I see her that it's just about
impossible to try again.

Pamela Morrison IBCLC (frustrated) in Zimbabwe