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Disability Issues
Dr Christine Peta
IN this article, I explore the intersection of disability, femininity, reproduction and motherhood.
A recent study carried out in Zimbabwe revealed that some women with disabilities who have had the experience of giving birth to a child or children face immense challenges in the arena of reproduction and motherhood, in both families and healthcare systems.
For example, Tsitsi, who acquired physical disability at the age of two, said when she was 19 years old, her mother took her to a clinic in their village and asked healthcare staff to carry out medical procedures on her so that she would not fall pregnant.
The mother feared if Tsitsi was to have children, her caregiving “burden” would increase as she would then have to take care of not only her daughter, who is a woman with disability, but her children as well.
Due to medical ethics, healthcare staff refused to undertake such procedures without Tsitsi’s consent.
The action taken by Tsitsi’s mother is not surprising considering that women with disabilities are commonly regarded as being unfit to be parents.
But we ought to be deeply concerned about the decision to subject girls and women with disabilities to irreversible, unnecessary and highly invasive surgeries in order to make caregiving easier.
In spite of disability, Tsitsi has a right to education, to work and to establish her own family.
Tsitsi’s mother feared Tsitsi would not be able to fend for her offspring because she is disabled. But Tsitsi later had two biological children.
She is a disabled single mother and is raising her two children through buying commodities from the Mbare market for resale.
Through her earnings, she is able to pay school fees, as well as meet all their other needs.
She believes, with a solid academic base, her children will one day pull her out of poverty as they will grow and become successful.
There is evidence that some women with disabilities who have not had the experience of giving birth may aspire to have their own children. For instance, Nyarai, who has down syndrome, wants to have a family with her partner, who also has a similar condition.
Nyarai wants to have four children and her partner 14, hence they have to negotiate and come to an agreement.
The experience of becoming a parent can be both satisfying and difficult for all people, yet persons with down syndrome have, at a worldwide scale, been historically denied space in marriage and motherhood.
However, research has indicated that whilst persons with down syndrome may need unique and prolonged support in raising their children, they can be good parents. The belief that women with down syndrome may not be able to look after their children because they need care and support for themselves, therefore, becomes a myth.
In another example, Rudo explained that, because she is deaf, partially blind and childless, some people in her home area in Murehwa call her a witch, who cannot have children in a context where the traditional understanding of disability in Zimbabwe is related to witchcraft, evil spirits and breaking of traditional taboos.
Such beliefs may result in the discrimination and exclusion of women with disabilities in families and mainstream support and services in the area of reproduction and motherhood.
Mako has epilepsy and she fell pregnant again three months after delivering her first child.
This was after she was told by healthcare staff that the epilepsy medicine she takes had weakened the effectiveness of the family planning tablets they had given her.
There is confirmation that disability makes a difference in the sense that, whilst generic healthcare approaches may apply to all women, those who are disabled may need unique reproductive health services that are tailor-made to suit specific disabilities.
In addition, drawing from a medical study carried out in Canada, one can argue that the side effects of medical drugs are significant elements that need to be carefully attended to by healthcare professionals who interact with persons with disabilities.
Nyasha, who became blind at the age of two because she was not immunised against measles, reported that when she delivered her first child, family members were not willing to help her to take care of the baby nor to give her information on parenting.
She also said the nurses at the healthcare centre where she delivered her baby shouted at her for having a baby while knowing full well that she is blind.
They expected her to concentrate on coping with her disability and not to start having children.
There is a need for all of us to realise that, Article 23 (b) of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, clearly states that women with disabilities have a right to responsibly and freely decide on the number and spacing of their own children.
In any case, judging women and imposing decisions on them because they are disabled, without seeking and respecting the women’s own point of view in relation to their reproductive and motherhood choices, only serves to secure power and privilege for non-disabled family members, caregivers and service providers to the detriment of the interests and well-being of women with disabilities themselves.
Dr Christine Peta is a disability, policy, international development and research expert. She is the national director of Disability Affairs in Zimbabwe. She can be contacted on: [email protected]
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