The Pregnancy and Support Services for Women with Developmental/Intellectual Disabilities and Autistic Women project was a partnership between researchers from Portland State University (PSU) and Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), and Autistic women and women with intellectual disabilities in Portland, Oregon.
The purpose of the project was to:
- understand the experiences women with intellectual disabilities and women on the autism spectrum have had with pregnancy and pregnancy decision-making; and
- create resources that might be helpful to other women with similar disabilities.
We interviewed fifty-one women, eleven who had never been pregnant and forty who had. We learned that they felt alone, often felt discriminated against, and had a lot to deal with in their lives. But we also learned that they were strong and independent, made decisions for themselves, and were proud of what they had accomplished.
The videos on this web site include their words, as well as the stories of some of the women on our research team.
We hope that you find these videos helpful, if not for you, maybe for someone you know–or to share with a group you belong to. You can always reach out to others you trust for support and assistance and we encourage you to do so.
Thank you from the Project Team:
- Principal Investigator – Mary Oschwald
- Co-Investigators – Christina Nicolaidis, Dora Raymaker, Mary Ann McCammon, Michelle Berlin
- Community Advisory Board Members – Andee Joyce, Annie Wallington, E Ashkenazy, Phoenix Lomis, Sherri Osburn, and Sonja Sizemore
- Supporting Staff – Khaki Marino
The Pregnancy and Support Services for Women with Developmental/Intellectual Disabilities and Autistic Women project was supported by National Institutes of Health grant number 1R21HD078830. The views expressed in these videos are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the NIH.