Women with Disabilities: Barriers and Facilitators to Accessing ...

WOMEN WITH DISABILITIES: BARRIERS AND FACILITATORS TO ACCESSING SERVICES DURING PREGNANCY,CHILDBIRTH AND EARLY MOTHERHOODSchool of Nursing and Midwifery, Trinity College Dublina higher prevalence of unrecognised medical problems and developmentaldelay due to inadequate early stimulation in the children of parents withintellectual disabilities (Feldman et al, 1985). Again, it is difficult to relate thisdirectly to the adequacy of the parenting provided, and studies suggest thatthese are, rather, related to lack of support and difficulties in accessing servicesand information (Keltner et al, 1999; McConnell and Llewellyn, 2000; IASSIDSIRG, 2008; Mayes et al, 2008). This view is supported by the fact that manyinterventional studies providing parenting training and support have been foundto improve parenting outcomes (Feldman et al, 1985; Tymchuk, 1985; Fantuzzoet al, 1986; Tymchuk et al, 1988; Llewellyn et al 2003).The immediate response to potential or actual inadequate parenting by parentswith intellectual disabilities has, in the past, involved the almost systematicremoval of children from the parents' custody (McConnell and Llewellyn, 1998;Sheerin, 1998b; Glaun and Brown, 1999); this is evidenced by the findings ofMickelson (1949) and, more recently, those of Accardo and Whitman (1990). Inparticular, it is the fact that over one fifth of families in this latter study, who hadchildren removed from them, had provided satisfactory care, which causesconcern. Feldman (1986:pg. 778) concludes that ‘retarded parents are probablycurrently the only group of citizens whose children are routinely taken away atbirth, before any evidence of child maltreatment can be established to justifyapprehension.’2.7.3.4. Attitudes to the sexuality and reproductive rights of women withintellectual disabilitiesWomen with intellectual disability are often considered either asexual orhypersexual, with little or no ability to control their sexual expression, yet theyhave the same sexual needs and desires as people without intellectualdisabilities (Mitchell et al, 1978; Aunos and Feldman, 2002; Keenan, 2006b).However, through the ages, women with intellectual disabilities were perceivedas ‘the most serious threat to society’ (Trent, 1994:pg. 179), because they wereviewed as abnormally fertile women who gave birth to defective children andspread sexually transmitted diseases (Jones, 1986; Perkins et al, 2002),47