OTTAWA - A Gatineau woman who lost all four limbs after a horrific accident nearly two years ago has given birth to a baby boy.
Congenital amputation is birth without a limb or limbs, or without a part of a limb or limbs.
Having a spinal cord injury (SCI) does not affect your ability to naturally become pregnant, carry, and deliver a baby, so your decision to have children is made in much the same way as anyone else.
There's a common misconception that disabled people can't—or worse, shouldn't—have babies. But the truth is that pregnancy rates among people with physical disabilities are only slightly lower than in the non-disabled population. One in four Ontarians with a physical disability is the parent of one or more children.
A 29-year-old woman in the United States lost both her hands and feet after going into septic shock days after having her second child via a C-section. In an interview with ABC News, Krystina Pacheco revealed that she became a quadruple amputee as a result of an infection from the C-section in October last year.
Though Krystina Pacheco was now awake, she still had to face what she now describes as the "hardest thing" she's been through. Just before Thanksgiving, she said doctors told her they would need to amputate both of her feet and hands because of the damage they had sustained while she was in intensive care.
The cause of limb reduction defects is unknown. However, research has shown that certain behaviors or exposures during pregnancy can increase the risk of having a baby with a limb reduction defect. These include: Exposure of the mother to certain chemicals or viruses while she is pregnant.
Women with paraplegia can learn how to check for labor by feeling the uterus. Women with tetraplegia can talk with the obstetrician about a contraction monitor that you can use at home. Women with a T10 level of injury or above may not feel labor pain. Women with injuries below T10 may feel the uterus contracting.
With the right support, people with disabilities can be great parents just like any other parents.
A wheelchair is a mobility device, like a skateboard, car or bus — you wouldn't describe a car driver as “car bound”! Wheelchairs enable people to move around more easily than if they didn't have a wheelchair — in fact, wheelchair users are the opposite of being “bound” by their wheelchair!
If the patient can control their urges over the day with the help of an external catheter, the medical staff might prefer not to use diapers. Still, patients wearing a diaper during short stays is entirely normal.
Surrogacy gives people an opportunity to have a child if they can't be pregnant themselves. People who might want to use surrogacy include: females who have a problem with their uterus or have had their uterus removed.
Despite their physical limitations, women who are paralyzed can become pregnant and have a vaginal birth. While paralyzed men tend to have some difficulty with sexual function, paralyzed women typically continue to menstruate and experience the same level of sexual desire as non-paralyzed women.
A congenital limb defect is when an arm or leg doesn't form normally as a baby grows in the uterus. The exact cause of a congenital limb defect is often not known. Certain things may increase the chances of a child being born with such a defect. These include gene problems or exposure to some viruses or chemicals.
Human embryos develop a tail between five and eight weeks after conception. The tail vanishes by the time humans are born, and the remaining vertebrae merge to form the coccyx, or tailbone.
A person who's had an arm or a leg surgically removed is an amputee. Some amputees get artificial limbs that allow them to be nearly as mobile as before the loss of a limb.
Misconception: People who have Down syndrome cannot have children. Reality: It's true that a person with Down syndrome may have significant challenges in rearing a child. But women who have Down syndrome are fertile and can give birth to children.
Impairment in a person's body structure or function, or mental functioning; examples of impairments include loss of a limb, loss of vision or memory loss. Activity limitation, such as difficulty seeing, hearing, walking, or problem solving.
While pregnancy itself is not a disability under the ADA, some pregnant workers may have one or more impairments related to their pregnancy that qualify as a “disability” under the ADA. An employer may have to provide that worker with a reasonable accommodation for the pregnancy-related disability.
The nerves that control a man's ability to have a reflex erection are located in the sacral area (S2–S4) of the spinal cord. Most paralyzed men are able to have a reflex erection with physical stimulation unless the S2–S4 pathway is damaged. Spasticity is known to interfere with sexual activity in some people with SCI.
Many spinal cord injured men are told that they are infertile because of their injury. This is usually not true. Men are often unable to ejaculate after spinal cord injury but their sperm production is usually normal.
Possible ways to get pregnant include intrauterine insemination as described above and in vitro fertilization. Sperm can be gotten from vibratory stimulation using devices that stimulate ejaculation.
What is Phocomelia Syndrome? Phocomelia syndrome is a rare birth defect characterized, in most instances, by severe malformation of the extremities. Infants born with this condition will have arms and/or legs that are severely shortened or sometimes completely absent.
Thalidomide is a drug that was marketed as a sedative and treatment for morning sickness in pregnant women in the late 50s and early 60s. This drug subsequently caused babies to be born with a range of disabilities.
The word “phocomelia” means seal limb. It describes an extremely rare condition in which babies are born with limbs that look like flippers. The long bones of the arms fail to develop, but fingers sometimes sprout from the shoulders. In some cases, the legs fail to develop, too.