Disabled women who are pregnant

Recently, I was made aware of a woman with a disability who was pregnant. The father was unsupportive and she was requesting assistance. This reminded me of someone I met years ago, Loretta.

Loretta was on a one-woman mission to educate us, the future doctors. She was paralysed from the waist down and was wheelchair-bound. She had to self catheterise just to empty her bladder and she was independent minded. Although I did not meet her daughter, I recall her relating the resistance when she made the decision to become a mother. Loretta gave me an article which she had written seeking to educate me even further re her plight and that of women with disabilities.

Societal prejudices

As I reflect on both situations, it reminds me of the societal prejudices against women with disabilities and of society wanting to deny them the right to be mothers. As if because of a circumstance over which they have no control, they should lose their biological rights to reproduce. Denying them this right is also suggesting that they would be less competent than able-bodied women in their roles as mothers.

Women with disabilities often have normal fertility and thus are able to become pregnant. However, they may have special issues that may place their pregnancies at higher risk. For example, in the case of Loretta, she would have been at a higher risk of urinary tract infections and ulcers on her body because of her difficulty moving around.

Life-threatening conditions

Women with an injury above a certain level in the spinal cord are also at risk for a life-threatening condition known as autonomic hyperreflexia. This condition which results in an extreme elevation in blood pressure and a slowing of a patient's heart rate can occur if pressure is placed on the bladder or rectum. This can result from certain stimuli including uterine contractions, infections and manual pressure. Signs of the condition include headache, sweating, nausea and nasal congestion.

If you are a woman with a disability who wants to become pregnant, it is important that you seek medical care prior to preg-nancy to address many of the important health issues that may arise. You may also wish to access available social support services to assist you in receiving adequate care in pregnancy and in caring for your child, if needed.

Be heartened by the fact that many women with disabilities have healthy pregnancies and, like Loretta, you can be a mother, despite society telling you otherwise. I hope that as a society, we will think twice before we seek to deny a woman an opportunity to perhaps be an excellent mother because of our own discomfort.

Dr Monique Rainford is a consulting obstetrician and gynaecologist; email: yourhealth@gleanerjm.com.