Overview

Taking Care, based on twenty-six interviews and other autobiographical narratives, challenges the negative stereotypes about mothers with disabilities. These women’s stories tell of their successes despite the barriers they encounter from the society in which they live. Covering issues in the mothering cycle from pregnancy and birth to raising a child through adulthood, the mothers’ experiences and strategies provide valuable information for other women with disabilities as well as for doctors and health and social service professionals. This book will provide a significant model for all parents.

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9780761859697

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Reviews

... Being a disabled mother is just like being a mother-the hardest and the best thing you've ever done. This book speaks volumes about the power of women's determination to take care of business with love, smarts, and help when you need it. -- Marsha Saxton, research director, World Institute on Disability, University of California, Berkeley Here she presents the voices of twenty-five women, aged 30 to 75, who speak truth to the power of a society that often views the work of mothering as unsuitable for women with disabilities... Eloquent and accessible, profound and practical, these life stories provide both historical context and a path forward for mothers with disabilities... Taking Care is an enlightened, important, and highly readable book. -- Lauri Umansky, co-editor with Paul K. Longmore, The New Disability History: American Perspectives I can only imagine how much reassurance, support, and inspiration will come to disabled mothers and their families from these many testimonies. Those who provide care or make policy for disabled mothers and their families are given clear and specific advice about how to improve their practice and with it, their own intelligence and humanity. -- Peggy McIntosh, associate director, Wellesley Centers for Women

The twenty-six life stories of disabled mothers presented in this book are hopeful and sobering. ... As a society, we can and should do more to make this major life function-having and raising children-more accessible and provide more accommodations for people with disabilities. Doctors, nurses, and other health care givers must be better educated about living with disability-and they might as well start by reading this book. Biography ... Being a disabled mother is just like being a mother-the hardest and the best thing you've ever done. This book speaks volumes about the power of women's determination to take care of business with love, smarts, and help when you need it. -- Marsha Saxton, research director, World Institute on Disability, University of California, Berkeley Here she presents the voices of twenty-five women, aged 30 to 75, who speak truth to the power of a society that often views the work of mothering as unsuitable for women with disabilities... Eloquent and accessible, profound and practical, these life stories provide both historical context and a path forward for mothers with disabilities... Taking Care is an enlightened, important, and highly readable book. -- Lauri Umansky, co-editor with Paul K. Longmore, The New Disability History: American Perspectives I can only imagine how much reassurance, support, and inspiration will come to disabled mothers and their families from these many testimonies. Those who provide care or make policy for disabled mothers and their families are given clear and specific advice about how to improve their practice and with it, their own intelligence and humanity. -- Peggy McIntosh, associate director, Wellesley Centers for Women

Author Information

Mary Grimley Mason is a professor emerita of English at Emmanuel College and resident scholar at Brandeis University’s Women’s Studies Research Center. She is the author of Life Prints: A Memoir of Healing and Discovery and Working Against Odds: Stories of Disabled Women’s Work Lives. She lives in the Boston area. Linda Long-Bellil is an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School where she conducts research and policy analysis on topics related to disability, health, and employment. She also teaches medical students and health professionals how to work effectively with people with disabilities. Her experience as a mother with a disability led to her collaboration on this book.

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