Blind woman sees her baby for the first time

A blind Canadian mother has seen her newborn son for the first time with the aid of specialised glasses.

Kathy Beitz, 29, has Stargardt disease. When she was 11, he vision started gradually deteriorating, with a blind spot developing and growing in the centre of her field of vision.

She is now legally blind.

But thanks to eSight, a company that produces headsets that can improve the amount of data that makes it through the wearer's eyes to their brain, she was able to see her newborn son for the first time.

"The moment I got the glasses, I was very ready to put them on," Beitz told CBC News.

"I got to see that he had my husband's feet and toes, and I got to see that he had my lips."

They'll also enable her to read books to her son.

The glasses work by capturing images with a camera over the wearer's nose and projecting them onto two HD screens within the headset. Many legally blind people can see images on a screen much better than objects in real life.

Ms Beitz was introduced to the glasses by her sister, who works for the company that produces them.

"Being a person with a disability [who has] two children of her own, she knew the struggles of being a legally blind or blind parent. So she was very adamant [about getting] the glasses for me and work with me to use them, so when I did have him, I got to experience everything that she didn't," said Ms Beitz.