The female paraplegic and mother-child relations

This report deals with the problems of the rehabilitation of female paraplegics, including sexual intercourse; conception, delivery, progeny, and motherhood. Successful rehabilitation creates favourable conditions for female paraplegics to bear children. Team approach to the problems of pregnancy and delivery in paraplegia includes involvement of the gynaecologist, obstetrician and paediatrician. In Slovenia this work is entrusted to the Clinic for Gynaecology and to the Rehabilitation Institute in Ljubljana. While pregnancy in the paraplegic involves risk this does not also apply to the delivery. Complications during pregnancy or delivery do not differ from those occurring in healthy pregnant women or healthy women in labour. Usually, a paraplegic mother can meet the requirements of nursing, caring for and bringing up her children, thus there is no reason why a properly rehabilitated female paraplegic should not fulfil her life and happiness by becoming a mother.