Literature Review on Provision of Appropriate and Accessible ...

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Workers might also need to raise awareness about parents with learning
difficulties with the supervisor of midwives at each hospital, the midwife
responsible for child protection and the local supervising authority for
midwives (Kirby, 2003).
The London Royal College of Midwives’ position paper on supporting
women with disabilities in maternity services draws attention to the
fact that health providers have a responsibility to address explicitly
the existence of discrimination and its implications for care (The Royal
College of Midwives, 2000).
<strong>Literature</strong> <strong>Review</strong> on Provision of Appropriate and Accessible
Support to People with an Intellectual Disability who are
Experiencing Crisis Pregnancy
4.9 Key findings
Findings in relation to the pregnancy experiences of women with
intellectual disability included:
Pregnancy and intellectual disability
• There is a real lack of empirical data on which to base practice
in relation to the experience of pregnancy and childbirth for
women with intellectual disability (McCray, 2000; Mayes et al.,
2006). Knowledge is lacking generally about how women with
intellectual disabilities feel about their fertility, about having or
not having babies and raising or not having the opportunity to
raise children (McCarthy, 2002).
• Research that does exist indicates that the reactions of people
close to these women when they announce their pregnancies are
almost exclusively negative.
• The number of women with intellectual disability now having
children is thought to be increasing. A recent study in England
demonstrated that almost 7 per cent of a sample of 2,898 adults
with learning difficulties had children (Emerson et al., 2005).
• Much of the literature in this area focuses on the prevention of
pregnancy and contraceptive management. Research from the
early 1990s to the present has focused on the socio-culturalhistorical
and environmental factors influencing women