Sensory impairment
INTRODUCTION Sensory impairment has a major effect on people’s lives: it affects them physically, socially, emotionally and financially. However, it is often a part of who they are, the way…
Maternity services and women’s experiences
INTRODUCTION The past two decades have witnessed a dramatic change in maternity care. Despite these changes however, disabled women are still being marginalised in that their specific and individual needs…
Women’s health and disability
INTRODUCTION The promotion of health and a healthy life-style, and the availability of health promotion strategies or intervention plans to rectify any lack of well-being are very much on political,…
Midwives’ skills, knowledge and attitudes: how they can affect maternity services
INTRODUCTION This chapter addresses maternity services, and although there is some unavoidable overlap with other chapters, especially Chapter 4, the content explores issues from a broader perspective and links more…
The interaction between specific conditions and the childbirth continuum
INTRODUCTION In the past women with certain medical or disabling conditions would have been advised by their doctors not to undertake pregnancy for fear of making their condition worse, having…
Women with intellectual disabilities
INTRODUCTION The purpose of this chapter is to provide guidance to practising midwives when working with parents who are learning disabled. During the production of this chapter, the question was…
The social construction of disability and motherhood
INTRODUCTION Disability is difficult to define, depending on the different and conflicting constructions regarding its ‘nature’ and ‘meaning’. Society is increasingly self-regulating; with more closely focused definitions of what is…
The role of the midwife in maternity service provision
INTRODUCTION Increasingly women with disabilities are making use of the maternity services (Royal College of Midwives (RCM) 2000) although the extent of that utilisation is unknown and is probably impossible…
