Literature Review on Provision of Appropriate and Accessible ...

PAGE 155
Research indicates that learning disabled mothers are poor attenders
of services and vulnerable to hospital admission resulting from medical
complications (McGaw, 1997). Therefore, preparing the mother for the
birth and encouraging her to attend ante-natal classes is vital. Good
practice occurs when GPs, community midwives and health visitors
work closely alongside parents (as part of a core team of professionals
across learning disabilities and children’s specialisms), especially during
the early stages of pregnancy. Campion (1996) issues a note of caution
regarding professional services in that there can be a multitude of
professionals involved with a pregnant woman with intellectual disability,
such as child protection specialists, midwives, community nurses, GPs,
psychiatrists, and clinical psychologists, who may give conflicting advice
and create different expectations (Campion, 1996).
Support to People with an Intellectual Disability who are
Accessible
and Appropriate of Provision on <strong>Review</strong> <strong>Literature</strong>
Experiencing Crisis Pregnancy
4.8.2 Tailoring services to intellectual disability
According to Tarleton et al., (2006), writing in the UK, many women with
learning difficulties have not previously been in contact with services.
According to Green and Vetere (2002) this means that many professionals
in generic services who do come into contact with them have little
knowledge or understanding about their support needs as people with
learning difficulties. A number of tools for identifying parents with
learning disabilities have been developed to help staff identify whether or
not a person has a learning difficulty (Tarleton et al., 2006). [87]
Similarly, Campion suggests that once women become involved with
maternity services, the issue arises of whether or not her learning
disability will be identified. When a service identifies that a client has
a learning disability it can either be sensitively incorporated into the
tailoring of individualised support for the woman or it can be used as
a label which creates concern in the professionals, depending on the
approach of the service in question (Campion, 1996).
According to Baum & Burns (2007: 12) it is essential to raise awareness
of parents with learning disabilities’ support and communication needs
with generic services such as ante-natal providers and midwifery, health
visiting, and child social work services. Writing in the UK context, the
87 Tools for identifying parents with learning disabilities are discussed in Section 5.3.