Simply a Matter of Organisation

15/07/2007

Katharina Marks loves her daughter Yonna
© Marks

REHACARE.de: Ms Marks, why do so few paraplegic women have children?
Marks: Many women are afraid of negative responses to their pregnancy or they fear having to ask for further help. Disabled women often want to show that they are able to get along on their own. Furthermore they are not afraid of the pregnancy itself, but rather of the time when the child learns to walk.

REHACARE.de: Are these fears justified?
Marks: It is all simply a matter of organisation. I did not need much help. If nowadays there are things I cannot do because of my wheelchair, like romping around on a playground, I ask somebody else to go there with her. One only has to have the courage to ask somebody. And I know a lot of single mothers who study. Their days are not less stressful.

REHACARE.de: How did your family react on your pregnancy? Marks: My parents were anxious for my health, for I also have Rheumatism and sometimes it gets worse, but they never wanted to detain me. The families of 80 percent of the women I know react differently. They actually say sentences like: “Is that really necessary? We have just only raised you?” or “Who is supposed to care for it?”

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REHACARE.de: What kind of problems can occur when a paraplegic woman gets pregnant?
Marks: The breaking of the waters can for example be mistaken for incontinence which plagues many women in wheelchairs. To avoid any confusion, labour is induced 24 days before the due date of the baby in women who are highly paralysed.

REHACARE.de: Is a paraplegic woman able to feel labour pains?
Marks: I could feel everything because I am not completely paralysed. For women who are completely paralysed and cannot feel anything this surely is different. These women have to see their doctor more frequently towards the end of their pregnancy.

REHACARE.de: What were the most exciting moments in your pregnancy?
Marks: When my daughter moved for the first time inside my belly. I had to giggle loudly because it tickled so much. And when I was told that my child is healthy in the 21. week of pregnancy. Because my disability was caused by Lyme disease the physicians were afraid that the baby might be born severely handicapped.

REHACARE.de: In order to help other paraplegic women who want to have a child you have launched your web forum.
Marks: When I was pregnant, I could not find any information for women who are confined to a wheelchair. I had to collect all the information myself, some even from physicians in foreign countries. It does so much good, when one can exchange experiences with other affected women. Therefore I launched the web forum. In the meantime women with all kinds of disabilities meet there and give each other tips about everyday problems during and after a pregnancy.

REHACARE.de: You write a lot in the web forum.
Marks: Every day I busy myself at least one hour with the forum and talk with persons in search of advice. However, I sometimes have to explain that I am not a doctor and attain my knowledge from my own experiences and conversations for example with physicians and other women.

REHACARE.de: What is the most frequent question of the women in your web forum?
Marks: They frequently ask how the child should be born. Physicians often recommend a Caesarean. From my own experience I would say this is often not necessary. Perhaps they just do not have enough information about paraplegic women for there are few of them. However, my daughter was born naturally like most of the others. From time to time ventouses and midwifery forceps are used during the bearing down pains.

REHACARE.de: And further?
Marks: A further question is how to carry a child after birth. For this reason I developed a technique with which you can carry a baby very easily in your wheelchair with a cloth on your lap.

REHACARE.de: What is your advice for paraplegic women with a desire to have children?
Marks: I recommend them to speak with an urologist at a rehab centre for paraplegics. He is at home in the subject.. The most important thing is to talk to other disabled women. For then you do not feel so alone.

REHACARE.de

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