Pregnant people with disabilities face barriers to accessible care: report 

The report published on Tuesday calls for more education and training about disabilities for physicians, nurses and other care providers who work with pregnant people.   

A new report says one in eight people who are pregnant in Ontario has a disability, but many face barriers to accessible care, as well as disrespectful attitudes from doctors and other care providers.

Lead author Hilary Brown from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences says people with disabilities have been overlooked in reproductive health care because of societal assumptions that they won’t have children.

Brown says some disabled participants in the study told researchers that nurses and doctors assumed they wanted to get abortions when they were seeking pregnancy care.

Some participants reported a lack of accessibility in doctors’ offices for people with mobility issues, as well as a lack of sign language interpretation during critical times such as labour and delivery.

Others reported a lack of understanding from health-care providers about their disabilities, what they are capable of doing and the care they needed.

The report published on Tuesday calls for more education and training about disabilities for physicians, nurses and other care providers who work with pregnant people.

It also calls for changes in how doctors are funded to allow them to spend more time with pregnant patients with disabilities.

The only surprising part about the findings is that the gaps in care are just now coming to light as a significant issue, said Wendy Porch, executive director of the Centre for Independent Living in Toronto, who was on the advisory committee for the report.