ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the impact the transition to motherhood has on women with a disability and presents approaches to care that clinicians and practitioners can incorporate to enhance the care provided to women with a disability when becoming mothers. It details the resilience women with disability demonstrate when negotiating the transition to motherhood and the profound impact the transition has on the woman's understanding, sense and assumptions of self. For women with a disability the symbolic relationships created with others, particularly significant others, created during pregnancy and in early motherhood and their appraisal, can be empowering or disempowering, accepting or renouncing of the woman. Research has identified how motherhood for women with a disability can provide a focus; it affirms their sense of femininity and instils a state of maturity. While pre-motherhood some may consider motherhood as all-encompassing and consuming, subsequent personal experiences of motherhood and the emotional rewards accompanying it change perceptions.
