Planning for Motherhood: Fertility Attitudes, Desires And Intentions Among Women with Disabilities

Shandra, Carrie L.; Hogan, Dennis P.; Short, Susan E.

doi:10.1363/46e2514

Cited by 47 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Recent evidence suggests that women with and without disabilities were equally likely to want children, but women with disabilities were less certain about their intentions to have children. 17 Findings limited to current pregnancy at time of interview found a lower prevalence of pregnancy among women with chronic physical disabilities compared to those without disabilities, but pregnancy prevalence was similar after adjusting for other socio-demographic characteristics associated with pregnancy. 18 An analysis of data from women with spinal cord injuries found that 2% reported a pregnancy during the past 12 months, similar to the rate of current pregnancy among all women with physical disabilities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 87%

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Pregnancy among US women: differences by presence, type, and complexity of disability

Horner‐Johnson

Darney

Kulkarni-Rajasekhara

et al. 2016

American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology

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Background Approximately 12% of women of reproductive age have some type of disability. Very little is known about sexual and reproductive health issues among women with disabilities, including what proportion of women with disabilities experience pregnancy. Data on pregnancy are important to inform needs for preconception and pregnancy care for women with disabilities. Objective The purpose of this study was to describe the occurrence of pregnancy among women with various types of disability and with differing levels of disability complexity, compared to women without disabilities, in a nationally representative sample. Study Design We conducted cross-sectional analyses of 2008–2012 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey annualized data to estimate the proportion of women ages 18–44 with and without disabilities who reported a pregnancy during one year of their participation on the survey panel. We used multivariable logistic regression to test the association of pregnancy with presence, type, and complexity of disability, controlling for other factors associated with pregnancy. Results Similar proportions of women with and without disabilities reported a pregnancy (10.8% vs. 12.3%, with 95% confidence intervals overlapping). Women with the most complex disabilities (those that impact activities such as self-care and work) were less likely to have been pregnant (AOR=0.69, 95%CI=0.52–0.93), but women whose disabilities only affected basic actions (seeing, hearing, movement, cognition) did not differ significantly from women with no disabilities. Conclusion Women with a variety of types of disabilities experience pregnancy. Greater attention is needed to the reproductive healthcare needs of this population in order to ensure appropriate contraceptive, preconception, and perinatal care.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 87%

“…15,17 Yet women with disabilities have reported a lack of clear guidance from physicians as to whether or not they can safely have children. 16 There is some evidence among Medicaid recipients that women with disabilities were less likely to receive early and adequate prenatal care than their counterparts without disabilities.…”

Section: Commentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pregnancy among US women: differences by presence, type, and complexity of disability

Horner‐Johnson

Darney

Kulkarni-Rajasekhara

et al. 2016

American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology

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“…Similarly, women with disabilities are often discouraged from having children, due to health concerns and/or beliefs that motherhood and disability are incompatible (Pebdani et al 2013); pregnant women with visible disabilities report experiencing questions, skepticism, and harassment from friends, family, and strangers (Prilleltensky 2003). Yet many women with disabilities are sexually active (Esmail et al 2010; Jahoda and Pownall 2013), wish to become mothers (Shandra et al 2014), and do so (Iezzoni et al 2014), underscoring the need to better understand the reproductive health and needs of women with disability.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A rare exception is one population-based study of fertility attitudes, desire and behavior among women with disabilities compared to those without (Shandra et al 2014). Analyses of these data ( N = 10,782), drawn from the 2006–2010 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), found both groups held similar attitudes, desires, and intentions towards motherhood.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fertility Desires and Intentions Among U.S. Women by Disability Status: Findings from the 2011–2013 National Survey of Family Growth

Bloom

Mosher

Alhusen

et al. 2017

Matern Child Health J

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Objectives We compared fertility desires and intentions among women with disabilities and women without disabilities in the United States, using a new evidence-based measure of disability. Methods We analyzed data from a sample of 5601 US women 15–44 years of age in the 2011–2013 National Survey of Family Growth. The data were analyzed via cross-tabulation and logistic regression. We classified women into those with a disability and those without a disability. Results Women with disabilities were about as likely to want a baby (61%) as women without disabilities (60%). But only 43% of women with disabilities intended to have a baby in the future, compared with 50% of women without disabilities. Thus, the difference between the percent who want a baby and the percent who intend to have one was larger for disabled women. Women with disabilities were also less certain of their fertility intentions. Multivariate analysis shows that having a disability lowers the odds of intending another birth, after controlling for several other determinants of fertility intentions. Conclusions for Practice All women, regardless of disability status, desired more children than they actually planned to have, but the gap was larger for most groups of women with disabilities than for non-disabled women. Given the sample sizes available in this analysis, future research should use more detailed classifications of disability, however, we have shown that women living with disabilities constitute large populations with unexplored family planning needs.

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“…Pregnancy intentions of women with disabilities have only recently been considered in the literature. Two population‐based studies, published in 2014 and 2017, found that women with disabilities were as likely to want a baby as women without disabilities 1,2 . However, women with disabilities were less likely to report actual intentions to have a baby in the future, and were less certain about their childbearing intentions, than women without disabilities 1,2 .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Pregnancy Intendedness by Maternal Disability Status and Type in the United States

Horner‐Johnson

Dissanayake

et al. 2020

Perspect Sexual Reproductive

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CONTEXT Societal views about sexuality and parenting among people with disabilities may limit these individuals’ access to sex education and the full range of reproductive health services, and put them at increased risk for unintended pregnancies. To date, however, no national population‐based studies have examined pregnancy intendedness among U.S. women with disabilities. METHODS Cross‐sectional analyses of data from the 2011–2013 and 2013–2015 waves of the National Survey of Family Growth were conducted; the sample included 5,861 pregnancies reported by 3,089 women. The proportion of pregnancies described as unintended was calculated for women with any type of disability, women with each of five types of disabilities and women with no disabilities. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationship of disability status and type with pregnancy intendedness while adjusting for covariates. RESULTS A higher proportion of pregnancies were unintended among women with disabilities than among women without disabilities (53% vs. 36%). Women with independent living disability had the highest proportion of unintended pregnancies (62%). In regression analyses, the odds that a pregnancy was unintended were greater among women with any type of disability than among women without disabilities (odds ratio, 1.4), and were also elevated among women with hearing disability, cognitive disability or independent living disability (1.5–1.9). CONCLUSIONS Further research is needed to understand differences in unintended pregnancy by type and extent of disability. People with disabilities should be fully included in sex education, and their routine care should incorporate discussion of reproductive planning.

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Planning for Motherhood: Fertility Attitudes, Desires And Intentions Among Women with Disabilities

Cited by 47 publications

References 32 publications

Pregnancy among US women: differences by presence, type, and complexity of disability

Pregnancy among US women: differences by presence, type, and complexity of disability

Fertility Desires and Intentions Among U.S. Women by Disability Status: Findings from the 2011–2013 National Survey of Family Growth

Pregnancy Intendedness by Maternal Disability Status and Type in the United States

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