Improving disabled people’s pregnancy experiences and outcomes through research, training, and education

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2024 annual report available now thumbnailAnnual Report

The National Center for Disability and Pregnancy Research is excited to share our annual report from this last year. The report highlights key research findings, our many dissemination products and resources, community outreach efforts, and much more from 2024.

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Video Research Brief: A Summary of the Pregnancy Health Experiences of Black Deaf and Hard of Hearing Women in the U.S.

 Video brief screenshot showing Cookie Brand signing and Kalia Helm doing voice over. Captions are visible. In the United States, who you are and the resources you have can impact the quality of healthcare you receive. Research shows that when pregnant women don’t get the health information, support, and healthcare they need, both the mother and baby can be at higher risk of health issues. In this study, we talked to eight Black Deaf and Hard of Hearing women to learn about their pregnancy healthcare experience.

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Inclusion of Black and Latina Parents with Physical Disabilities in a Qualitative Research StudyInclusion of Black and Latina Parents With Physical Disabilities in a Qualitative Research Study: A Peer Researcher Training Model

Compared to a small but growing community of Black and Latinx academic researchers with disabilities, there is little inclusion in the research process of non-academic community members with similar intersectional identities. Lurie Institute researchers conducted a qualitative study examining the pregnancy experiences of people from Black/Latinx communities who have physical disabilities that involved training four peer researchers to conduct interviews and analyze the data. This article describes the researchers' approach and suggests how it might offer a model for training peer researchers in qualitative research methodology.

Access the research article

Plain-language summary to come soon!

Two-Part Series on Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing MothersTwo-Part Series on Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Mothers

 Now in ASL format!

Our research report series describes Lurie Institute research in collaboration with researchers at the University of Michigan Medical School on the pregnancy and postpartum experiences of Deaf and hard-of-hearing mothers.

Access the 2-part series in ASL video format

Black Maternal Health Week - resources and information. An illustration of a visibly pregnant Black person is next to the text. Black Maternal Health

Learn more. Access resources and an infographic on health inequality.

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Pregnancy Care Disparities

Deaf and hard-of-hearing women have distinct healthcare experiences during and after pregnancy, facing disparities in needs and outcomes.

Read our Two-Part Series

‘Do you have a man? Can you have sex?’

Disabled women have children at the same rate as nondisabled women, but Lurie Institute director Monika Mitra notes that "[t]he assumption is that a person cannot have a disability and take care of someone else."

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