Learning your newborn or even unborn baby has a heart defect can be terrifying. In our experience, the waiting and fear were harder than the surgery itself, and Ellie was amazingly resilient.

I photographed a number of children, ages newborn to high school senior, with congenital heart defects in honor of CHD Awareness Month. This collage also includes their siblings, and one mama with a CHD herself.

You'll notice kids with Down syndrome disproportionately represented. Kids with Down syndrome have about a 40-50% chance of having some kind of heart defect.

Like Ellie's cute zipper club shirt? It's from Capitol Maker.