Pregnancy with a physical disability: One psychologist's journey

Andrews, Erin E.

doi:10.1037/e520732012-002

Cited by 60 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In disability culture, the concept of independent living is promoted (Gill, 1995). Independent living is not about being able to do everything oneself but rather about exerting control and achieving autonomy in one's life and roles, including parenting (Andrews, 2011). Disabled parenting journeys often require assistance from others, adaptations, and unconventional ways of doing things.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parenting with disability: Experiences of disabled women.

Andrews¹,

Ayers²

2016

Eliminating Inequities for Women With Disabilities: An Agenda for Health and Wellness.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Women with disabilities face barriers to sexual and reproductive health and, subsequently, to parenting. Scant attention has been paid to the role of parenting with disability in the psychology or rehabilitation fields. Social biases exist that stereotype women with disabilities as vulnerable, asexual, infertile, and incapable as mothers (Nario-Redmond, 2010). It is unknown exactly how many women with disabilities are parents. Generally, people with disabilities are believed to represent approximately 15% of parents in the United States, or anywhere from 6.9 to 8.4 million people; this proportion is even higher in certain subgroups, including single parents, African Americans, and Latinos (Preston, 2010). Cultural stereotypes result in a reduced societal expectation for motherhood among disabled women (Kirshbaum & Olkin, 2002). However, evidence suggests that more women with disabilities are becoming parents than ever before (National Council on Disability, 2012;

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parenting with disability: Experiences of disabled women.

Andrews¹,

Ayers²

2016

Eliminating Inequities for Women With Disabilities: An Agenda for Health and Wellness.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…According to the literature, women with disabilities often experience pressure from their families and community not to have children [43]. They are in general discouraged from pregnancy out of misplaced fear that their children will in turn have disabilities or their pregnancy might lead to unwarranted complications [44]. A study from the US reported that women with disabilities were significantly less likely to intend to have more children than other women [45].…”

Section: Disability and Utilization Of Essential Maternal And Reprodu...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Are women with disabilities less likely to utilize essential maternal and reproductive health services?—A secondary analysis of Pakistan Demographic Health Survey

2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background People with disabilities deal with widespread exclusion from healthcare services, including sexual and reproductive health (SRH) rights. Studies analyzing the relationship between disability and key SRH utilization outcomes have often reported mixed findings. In Pakistan, very little to no literature is available on this topic, therefore we aim to determine inequalities in the utilization of essential maternal and reproductive health services between women with and without disabilities in Pakistan. Methods This was a secondary analysis of Pakistan Demographic Health Survey 2017–18 performed on a weighted sample of 6,711 women aged 15–49 years with a live birth in the 5 years preceding the survey. Six types of disabilities were assessed i.e. vision, hearing, communication, cognition, walking and self-care. Utilization of essential maternal and reproductive health services was assessed through a set of four outcome variables: (i) modern contraceptive use; (ii) skilled antenatal care (ANC); (iii) skilled birth attendance (SBA); and (iv) skilled postnatal care (PNC). Multivariate Cox regression analysis was performed to determine the association between dependent and independent variables. Data were analyzed using Stata MP Version 16.0. Results A total of 6,711 women were included out of which 14.1% (n = 947) live with at least one form of disability. Mean age was 29.4 (S.E = 0.13) years. The most prevalent form of disability was vision (7.0%), followed by walking (4.8%), cognition (4.8%) and hearing (1.8%). Women with disabilities were comparatively less educated, belonged to older age group, and had higher parity than their non-disabled counterparts. With the exception of modern contraceptive use, which was more prevalent in the group with disabilities, women with disabilities were less likely to utilize skilled ANC, SBA and PNC in bivariate analysis. However, these associations turned insignificant in the adjusted model. Overall, no statistically significant differences were observed in the utilization of essential reproductive health services between women with and without disabilities after adjusting for important covariates. Conclusion Our analyses did not find any statistically significant differences in the utilization of essential maternal and reproductive health services between women with and without disabilities. In-depth research utilizing qualitative or mixed methods is required to understand how well the healthcare system in Pakistan is responsive to the different needs of disabled women.

show abstract

“…An illustrative example is that of a pregnant triple amputee referred to genetic counseling although her impairment was not inherited. A perinatologist to whom she also was referred denied that her pregnancy was high-risk and warned her against being talked into a caesarean section just because her absence of limbs made other physicians nervous [27]. Clinicians should take care that assumptions about risks are not prompted or exaggerated by unwarranted generalizations or stereotypes.…”

Section: Misjudging Women With Disabilities In the Context Of Reprodumentioning

confidence: 99%

“…People with disabilities who reproduce are sometimes condemned as posing risks to or imposing burdens on society. Women with disabilities who have experienced pregnancy frequently report being targeted by complaints about their selfishness, based on the assumption that their relatives will have to raise their children or that their children will become burdens to taxpayers [12,27].…”

Section: Misjudging Women With Disabilities In the Context Of Reprodumentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite increased understanding of heritability, disabled women may also be discouraged from pregnancy out of misplaced fear that their children will in turn have disabilities [27]. As legal history underlines, people with disabilities have been subject to forced sterilization for precisely these reasons [31,32].…”

Section: Misjudging Women With Disabilities In the Context Of Reprodumentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Reproductive Rights and Access to Reproductive Services for Women with Disabilities

Silvers

Francis

Badesch

2016

AMA Journal of Ethics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Are women with disabilities owed equitable access to reproductive health services, including family planning, contraception, screening for sexually transmitted infections, maternal health services, and fertility services? Or are there circumstances in which disability is a reason to deny access to such services? Conversely, should women with certain disabilities have access to procedures such as caesarean section or sterilization? May these procedures be recommended just because a woman has a disability or imposed on her if she appears reluctant or unable to consent? Treating People with Disabilities: Equitable Access is Key Legal and professional answers to the questions posed above have been strongly in favor of equitable access to treatment and autonomous decision making for patients with disabilities. Physicians' offices, clinics, hospitals, and other medical facilities are required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 to provide meaningful access to the services they provide for people with disabilities who meet essential eligibility requirements, with or without accommodations. These providers may also be covered by state antidiscrimination laws. Meaningful access is a legal standard that calls for a fact-specific inquiry into whether individuals with disabilities are afforded equitable opportunity to benefit from the provider's services [1, 2]. The focus is on whether the individual's disability has occasioned loss of equitable opportunity to receive the same quality of medical services, rather than the same resulting benefit, as that afforded to other people. A site that dispenses medical treatment would not meet this access standard if, for example, a speech-output version of the usual printed directions for taking medications was not provided to visually impaired patients, or if deaf patients could not participate with their physician in conversations about treatment choices for lack of an ASL interpreter. To use another illustration, inaccessible examination equipment continues to be a problem despite the ADA [3]. A common example is the absence of examination tables that lower to facilitate transferring from a wheelchair to the table, preventing wheelchair users from being properly examined. This subjects them to limited, substandard, noncomprehensive care [4]. As a general matter, data indicate that adults with disabilities, especially women, receive less access to needed health care even when controlling for variables such as socioeconomic status [5].

show abstract

Pregnancy with a physical disability: One psychologist's journey

Cited by 60 publications

References 0 publications

Parenting with disability: Experiences of disabled women.

Parenting with disability: Experiences of disabled women.

Are women with disabilities less likely to utilize essential maternal and reproductive health services?—A secondary analysis of Pakistan Demographic Health Survey

Reproductive Rights and Access to Reproductive Services for Women with Disabilities

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About