Podcast: Disabled and pregnant? Good luck finding a doctor
This article was reported by Sonja Sharp with the support of the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism’s 2021 California Fellowship.
Her other stories include:
Disabled mothers-to-be face indignity: ‘Do you have a man? Can you have sex?’
A bulletin board in Dr. Marie Flores’ office at an AltaMed clinic in Pico Rivera.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Disabled people get pregnant and give birth at the same rates as nondisabled ones. But their outcomes are often far worse — for reasons that can’t be explained by anatomical difference or medical complexity — and modern medicine has largely turned its back on them.
L.A. Times reporter Sonja Sharp has experienced the discrimination firsthand, and she’s reported on the issue as well.
Today, she speaks with Dr. Marie Flores, a physician who uses a wheelchair and is trying to become a mother, and Dr. Deborah Krakow, the chair of UCLA’s obstetrics and gynecology department, about how our society treats the intersection of pregnancy and disability. She also shares her own story and describes why she sees disabled motherhood as a radical act.
Host: L.A. Times Metro reporter Sonja Sharp
Guests: Dr. Marie Flores and Dr. Deborah Krakow
[Published by the Los Angeles Times.]