Conference 2010: Empowering physically disabled parents during pregnancy and birth
Conference presentations are available online. See below.
This conference was held on Thursday 14 October 2010. It provided an opportunity for delegates to discuss what empowers disabled parents to make choices about pregnancy, childbirth and caring for their new baby. Speakers included both disabled parents and healthcare professionals, including a midwife, an obstetric anaesthetist, a women's health physiotherapist and an occupational therapist. The conference was chaired by Jane Verity, Head of Maternity, First Years and Families at Department of Health.
DPPI also launched its latest publication, Pregnancy, birth and early parenthood: a guide for physically disabled parents, at the conference.
Presentations
The magic of disabled parenting - Steve Westrop
Before attaining the double blessing of parenthood and disability in 2006, Steve worked as a Church leader, youthworker, counsellor, writer, educational consultant, and founding director of a webhosting company. Now a professional stay-at-home disabled Dad, in his spare(?) time Steve is Chair and ICT Director of Disabled Parents Network, and ICT/business Consultant to a number of voluntary organisations across the UK. He also provides training to health and social care professionals on disability issues, and tends to cause trouble wherever he goes!
Pregnancy & birth: a disabled mother's perspective - Tracey Cottell
Founder of www.scoliosis-support.org and a mother.
Becoming a disabled father - Tim Rushby-Smith
Tim Rushby-Smith is a journalist who has written columns for The Times and the BBC's Ouch website. He also writes for many other publications. Looking Up, his account of sudden disability was published in April 2008. He lives with his wife and five year old daughter in East London. www.timrushby-smith.com.
Involving disabled parents in service planning - Charlotte Foulkes
In a previous life (before arthritis) Charlotte Foulkes was a lecturer in computing. These days she is single mum to toddler Rosie and volunteers for Disabled Parents Network, and Lewisham LINk. One afternoon a week, she works on the DPN helpline. She has recently completed “Enter & View” training for LINk.
Panel questions and answers
Whose disability is it? A midwife's perspective - Beverley Lynn
Bev Lynn qualified as a midwife in 1993 and after consolidating her training within a maternity unit she practiced within a midwifery group practice facilitating case holding midwifery. She now has a joint position as a Practice Educator Midwife for Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust & Senior Midwifery Lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University. Bev continues to hold a small midwifery caseload providing one to one care.
A physiotherapist's perspective - Clair Jones
Clair Jones is a New Zealand qualified physiotherapist, employed as a clinical specialist physiotherapist at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. She also holds a Masters degree in Physiotherapy in Women's Health, and has recently completed a term as Chairman of the ACPWH Education Sub-Committee.
Safety and pain relief in labour for disabled mothers - Dr Bernadette Loughnan
Dr Bernadette Loughnan is a consultant anaesthetist with a special interest in Obstetric Anaesthesia working at a busy District General Hospital in London and serving an ethnically diverse population. She is currently on the Obstetric Anaesthetists' Association national committee and has a special interest in illness in obstetrics and its impact on the early period after childbirth.
Parents with a disability: an occupational therapist's perspective - Nelly Stanbury
Originally from the Netherlands, Nelly Stanbury has worked as an occupational therapist in Neurological Rehabilitation and Community Services in various positions in Oxfordshire. In 1998 she joined the Specialist Disability Service at the Oxford Centre for Enablement as a member of a multi disciplinary team focusing on the management of complex disability. Part of her role is her involvement with parents who have complex needs arising from physical disability and to provide them with support and advice either during pregnancy or in the early years of childhood.