Birth experiences of women with physical and sensory disabilities

Objective: This research; was conducted to examine the experiences, feelings, thoughts and needs of women with physical and sensory disabilities regarding childbirth. Materials and Method: The research was conducted qualitatively. The sample of the research consisted of 7 physically disabled, 6 hearing disabled and 5 visually disabled women in the sensory disability group. The participants were included using the snowball technique, one of the purposive sampling methods. The data were used between November 2020 and May 2022 in a semi-structured interview form prepared by the researchers based on the literature to determine the socio-demographic and obstetric characteristics of women with disabilities and their feelings, thoughts, experiences and needs for birth.Interviews were conducted online. The data obtained from the research were written down and reported with content analysis using the MAXQDA 2022 Program. Result: The disabled women who participated in the study were between 26 and 64 years old, 15 of them were married, 3 of them were single, and 8 of them were employed in an income-generating job. One of the births of the women took place at the health center, one at home and 16 at the hospital. The findings obtained from the research consist of 5 main themes and 15 sub-themes. The main themes were found to be; situations affecting birth preference, experiences during the birth process, meeting with the baby, situations desired to change and birth needs of disabled individuals. Conclusion: The positive experiences of women with disabilities during the birth process were receiving attention and support from health personnel, feeling the feeling of motherhood and excitement during birth, having interpreter support in institutions and receiving breastfeeding support. Negative experiences include being ignored by health personnel, being excluded due to their disability, communication problems, difficult delivery, experiencing fear during delivery, encountering inexperienced health personnel, and thoughts that their child will also be disabled. Women with disabilities stated that they needed health personnel to be trained and informed, to be adequately informed during pregnancy, birth and postpartum, to have the delivery area and examination equipment suitable for them, and to have the necessary narration support and interpreters in the institutions. Women with disabilities are satisfied with their births when they receive attention and support from health personnel. Keywords: Childbirth, disability, midwifery, woman