Midwives׳ experiences of caring for women with learning disabilities – A qualitative study

Emma Castell, Biza Stenfert Kroese

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Abstract

People with learning disabilities (LD) are increasingly likely to become parents and are entitled to have access to the right support to be able to be suitable parents. However, access to such support is affected by limited resources, attitudes towards people with LD becoming parents, and lack of training regarding caring for parents with learning disabilities for midwives. A learning disability (LD) is defined as a significantly reduced ability to understand new or complex information, to learn new skills (impaired intelligence), reduced skills to cope independently with everyday life, has an impact on most areas of a person’s life and the difficulties started in early childhood. Little research has explored health professionals’ experiences of their support of people with LD during their journey to become parents. Midwives are often the first professionals pregnant women come into contact with and therefore are key professionals in the support system for parents with LD. The principle objective of the current research is to develop an understanding of midwives’ experiences of caring for women with a LD.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)35-42
JournalMidwifery
Volume36
Early online date8 Feb 2016
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2016

Keywords

  • Parenting
  • Learning disabilities
  • Midwives
  • Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

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