Good News for Pregnant Disabled Women

Written by Angela Chamblee

A long time ago, doctors would tell disabled mothers to abort their fetuses.  People were afraid the disabled Mom would not be able to take care of her child,  People were afraid that she would pass on her disability to her children.

Today, even though doctors tell disabled women not to have children, the disabled Mother decides to have children anyway, and guess what?  The children are being born healthy, and the disabled Mother does not usually pass on her disability to her children.  Disabled mothers have the same rate of disabled babies born to average mothers.

There are still, however, problems.  Doctors to disabled moms still function the way doctors did 90 years ago.  Disabled moms get asked questions like “ Can you have sex? and Do you have a man?  Disabled women do enjoy having sex and often do. They also marry.
Moreover, ninety years ago  Hispanic artist Frida Kahlo tried to get pregnant time after time, but her pregnancies ended in miscarriage after miscarriage because she had multiple disabilities and the medicines she took for her disabilities killed her fetuses.  She was never able to have a child.

Today, disabled mothers have different options available to them.  There are alternative medications that they can take, and they won’t harm the fetus. Some doctors still  don’t  seem to know this. There are also a lot of doctors that don’t want to treat  disabled moms-to-be because they are afraid that something will happen to the mother or the baby.

Ironically, the birth rates all over the world are going down. People are saying that they don’t think they can take care of children because of the economy and the pandemic. Many people think that parenting is “time and labor intensive.” (Sharp, 12 para) Some women work two or three jobs.  They worry that they are not able to be a good parent to their children, but disabled women are saying “yes” to motherhood.  Disabled women are also going to college and graduate school, so they can get access to good paying jobs that allow them to better care for their children, even though they may be taking on more debt.

Even though there are risks to pregnancy, there have always been women who say “yes” to motherhood, even at the risk of death.  Even though parents tell disabled women, they should not have children, even though siblings and friends tell disabled women they should not have children, even though doctors tell disabled women they should not have children, disabled women are saying “yes” to motherhood, fathers are saying “yes” to fatherhood, and babies are saying “yes” to life.

Work Cited

Sharp,Sonja.  “Diabled Mothers-to-be Face Indignity: ‘Do Have a Man? Can you have

     Sex Los AngelesTime.com   Los Angeles Times:  Sept.30, 2021.  Accessed 

     December 20,2021.

Walsh,Bryan.”Why More Americans are Winding Up Childless”.  Axios.com

Nov. 24,2021. Accessed December 20, 2021. Sent from my iPad