Lack of post-natal services for mothers with disability criticised
The report — The Strengths and Weaknesses of Publicly-funded Irish Health Services Provided to Women with Disabilities in Relation to Pregnancy, Childbirth and Early Motherhood — maintains poorly resourced community services cannot cope with new mothers who have a disability and who have been promised post-natal support. For example, mothers with disabilities were advised by hospital staff that support would be provided on discharge from hospital through the public health nurse. In reality, this promise was not delivered, the report says.
Commissioned by the National Disability Authority and carried out by Trinity College Dublin, the study found women with disabilities frequently fall between two stools when trying to access services. Some even reported having to leave the country to get the services they required — or pay for private care.
