Disability and Pregnancy: Accessible Care Planning Toolkit
This toolkit includes a Comprehensive Pregnancy Care Checklist and a Complex Case Conference Template. The Comprehensive Pregnancy Care Checklist can be used as a guide when considering potential aspects of care needed for individuals with physical disabilities during pregnancy. It was developed in a person-centred manner with input from people with physical disabilities, community leaders, and an interdisciplinary team of care providers. The Complex Case Conference Template is designed to guide interdisciplinary case conferences for those with medical complexity.
These tools were adapted and revised to ensure their applicability in different care settings by healthcare providers caring for pregnant individuals with physical disabilities. Recognizing that rural, remote, and community care providers may lack access to some of the resources noted in the checklist, the toolkit is designed as a guide for providers to initiate conversations and create a tailored plan for pregnancy care that that is reflective of the care needs of each pregnant individual with a physical disability.
PCMCH is committed to fostering equity, diversity and inclusion within the perinatal healthcare system, and developed these resources with the intention that they will further health equity for people with disabilities.
Resources
- Disability and Pregnancy: Accessible Care Planning Toolkit
- Comprehensive Pregnancy Care Checklist
- Complex Case Conference Template
Webinar
Creating an Accessible Care Environment for Individuals with Disabilities During Pregnancy and Birth
Presented on Dec. 15, 2023, this webinar shares an individual's lived experience of pregnancy and childbirth while concurrently having a physical disability, reviews systemic healthcare barriers, and identifies care needs for pregnant individuals and families living with a physical disability. This webinar also examines the model of care and key components of an interprofessional, family-centered care team approach used in a dedicated antenatal clinic, and describes how to apply aspects of care to one's own practice in order to enhance the quality of care for pregnant individuals living with physical disabilities.
Speakers
Diana Drake: Bachelor of Physical Education; Bachelor of Education; Devoted new Mom; Advocate for the Disability Community; Dr. Anne Berndl: Maternal-Fetal Medicine Specialist; Director of the Accessible Care Pregnancy Clinic, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre; Elizabeth Jung: Advanced Practice Nurse, Accessible Care Pregnancy Clinic, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
