Taking Care

Lessons from Mothers with Disabilities

By (author) Mary Grimley Mason With Linda Long-Bellil

Publication date:

23 October 2012

Length of book:

138 pages

Publisher

University Press of America

Dimensions:

229x150mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9780761859697

Taking Care, based on twenty-six interviews and other autobiographical narratives, challenges the negative stereotypes about mothers with disabilities. These women’s stories tell of their successes despite the barriers they encounter from the society in which they live. Covering issues in the mothering cycle from pregnancy and birth to raising a child through adulthood, the mothers’ experiences and strategies provide valuable information for other women with disabilities as well as for doctors and health and social service professionals. This book will provide a significant model for all parents.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements
Introduction: Disability and the Role of Mothering
Chapter 1 Having a Child: From the Decision Through the Postpartum Experience
Chapter 2 Care Giving and Mothers with Disabilities: The Early Years
Chapter 3 Meeting the Outside World
Chapter 4 Family Relationships and Community
Chapter 5 What Mothers With Disabilities Know
Chapter 6 Public Policy and Mothers with Disabilities by Linda Long-Bellil
Works Cited
Selected Bibliography

The twenty-six life stories of disabled mothers presented in this book are hopeful and sobering. ... As a society, we can and should do more to make this major life function—having and raising children—more accessible and provide more accommodations for people with disabilities. Doctors, nurses, and other health care givers must be better educated about living with disability—and they might as well start by reading this book.