What Impact Does Pregnancy Have On Women With Lower Limb Absence?
Barber Prosthetics Clinic & University of Toronto & West Park Health Care Centre
Fun Fact: All of our clinicians have experience providing care to individuals with limb loss during their pregnancies!
As clinicians of individuals with lower limb absence, we have identified a huge lack of knowledge and resources for our patients as they go through their pregnancy. We often get asked questions about what to expect during pregnancy, and while we have a lot of experience to draw from, there is so much that is unknown. We wanted to address this gap and began a journey to compile as much information as we could from patients and their health care providers.
2nd Fun Fact: To our knowledge, this is the largest study done to date understanding the experience of navigating pregnancy with lower limb absence.
We aimed to explore the experiences of individuals with lower limb absence and their health care providers (doctors, prosthetists, physiatrists, etc.) as they journey through the pregnancy and post-partum periods. After 19 interviews with women with limb absence who have been pregnant, 11 interviews with health care providers (including prosthetists & physiatrists), and 18 chart reviews of prosthetic treatment notes for women during pregnancy, we have concluded our study and have made several resources to share our findings. We hope this information is very helpful to guide you on your journey!
Resources for Patients:
Resources for Healthcare Providers:
We have also published several academic articles (with more coming soon):
This project was made possible thanks to the generous support of The War Amps.
