Authors: Antigoni Sarantaki, Maria Vasiliki Zambeli, Athina Diamanti, Aikaterini Lykeridou.
Background: Disability is a global phenomenon counting more than one billion people reaching the percentage of 15% of the population worldwide and it will be rising constantly in the coming years. Women with disabilities are getting pregnant more and more. Although perinatal care has been extensively researched and is constantly being improved for women without disabilities, health care professionals are not adequately educated and fully experienced for caring for pregnant women with disabilities. As a result of that they are negatively inclined towards disabled women.
Objective: The purpose of this review is to investigate health care providers’ behaviors and attitudes towards women with disabilities whilst providing perinatal care.
Conclusion: Overall, it seems that health care providers feeling insecure and not confident in providing perinatal care to women with disabilities which results in them having negative attitudes and behaviors. This stems from the inadequate knowledge they have about disability conditions and pregnancy. Upgrading their training and education from undergraduate level is an urgent need. Constant contact with disabled patients seems to be a beneficial factor for better treatment.
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