Description
Book SynopsisTaking Care, based on twenty-six interviews and other autobiographical narratives, challenges the negative stereotypes about mothers with disabilities. These womenâs stories tell of their successes despite the barriers they encounter from the society in which they live. This book will provide a significant model for all parents.
Trade ReviewThe 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. * Biography *
. . . . Being a disabled mother is just like being a mother—the hardest and the best thing you’ve ever done. This book speaks volumes about the power of women’s determination to take care of business with love, smarts, and help when you need it. -- Marsha Saxton, research director, World Institute on Disability, University of California, Berkeley
Here she presents the voices of twenty-five women, aged 30 to 75, who speak truth to the power of a society that often views the work of mothering as unsuitable for women with disabilities. . . . Eloquent and accessible, profound and practical, these life stories provide both historical context and a path forward for mothers with disabilities. . . . Taking Care is an enlightened, important, and highly readable book. -- Lauri Umansky, co-editor with Paul K. Longmore, The New Disability History: American Perspectives
I can only imagine how much reassurance, support, and inspiration will come to disabled mothers and their families from these many testimonies. Those who provide care or make policy for disabled mothers and their families are given clear and specific advice about how to improve their practice and with it, their own intelligence and humanity. -- Peggy McIntosh, associate director, Wellesley Centers for Women
Table of ContentsTABLE 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
