Disabled Mothers : Stories and Scholarship by and About Mothers with Disabilities

This collection of 18 scholarly works and personal accounts from Canada, the U.S., and Australia explores and analyzes issues of parenting by mothers with a variety of physical and mental disabilities. The book delves into pregnancy, birth, adoption, child custody, discrimination, and disability politics. Noticing dominant ideas, meanings, and narratives about mothering and disability, as the contributors of this book do, exposes how the actual lives and experiences of mothers with disabilities are key to challenging cultural norms and therefore discrimination. “Disabled Mothers brings together disability studies’ perspectives and the lived experiences of mothering and being mothered. It gives life to issues of body, state control, freedom, racism, sexism, and the familial networks of care and belonging in new and radically accessible ways. Disabled Mothers is essential reading for those who want to open their imaginations to the various ways the life of disability and that of mothering engage us, touch us, and make us re-think what we thought we knew about maternal relations and embodiment.” —TANYA TITCHKOSKY, OISE of the University of Toronto, Author of Disability, Self and Society “The strength of this collection is the breadth and scope of the coverage on the subject of mothers with disabilities. Alternating between research studies and personal essays, this book provides important information and readability.” —MARY GRIMLEY MASON, PhD Professor of English emerita Resident Scholar, Brandeis University’s Women’s Studies Research Introduction Gloria Filax and Dena Taylor Considering Motherhood “Where Do Babies Come From?”: Meeting Joanne and Kyle: a Reflection on Mothering, Disability and Identity Samantha Walsh Scrutinizing and Resisting Oppressive Assumptions about Disabled Parents Christina Minaki Mothering with Disabilities Mothering in Silence: Historical Perspectives on Deafness, Marriage, and Motherhood R.A.R. Edwards It’s a Miracle Katharine Hayward Use of Aids and Adaptations in Childcare for Mothers with Spinal Cord Injury Anita Kaiser, Kathryn Boschen and Denise Reid Embodying my Passions: Becoming a Radical Feminist Mother Michelle Tichy Mothers with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder: A Need for Long Term Sustained Services Karen Nielsen and Ann Marie Dewhurst Sybil Meredith Powell Disabling Mothers: Constructing a Postpartum Depression Lynda R. Ross My Daughter, My Selves? Motherhood, Multiplicity, and the Creation of Meaning Kristina Passman Nielson Ideal Motherhood and Surveillance: Young Mothers with Intellectual Disabilities Share Their Stories Amanda Malone Mothers with Multiple Social “Stigmas” Centering the Broken, Brown Body: Reflections on Disability, Race and Motherhoods Seema Bahl Motherhood Experiences of Racialized Disabled Women Bahja Nassir Non-existent & Struggling for Identity Vicky D’Aoust Disabled Mothers and the Judicial System Disabled Mothers: Misadventures & Motherhood in the American Courts Ella Callow Unruly Mothers or Unruly Practices? Disabled Mothers Surviving Oppressive State Practices in Australia Carolyn Frohmader, Helen Meekosha and Karen Soldatic The Child’s Perspective Disabled Mothers: Perspectives of Their Young Adult Children Paul Preston and Jean Jacob Learning How to Swim: Finding Meaning in Disability from a Daughter’s Perspective Gina Blankenship Resources Author Biographies This collection of 18 scholarly works and personal accounts from Canada, the U.S., and Australia explores and analyses issues of parenting by mothers with a variety of physical and mental disabilities. The book delves into pregnancy, birth, adoption, child custody, discrimination, and disability politics. Noticing dominant ideas, meanings, and narratives about mothering and disability, as the contributors of this book do, exposes how the actual lives and experiences of mothers with disabilities are key to challenging cultural norms and therefore discrimination