 Any mother can attest, keeping up with children requires strength and endurance. Now, imagine giving birth to and raising two children while confined to a wheelchair. For Jessica Shone, mother of three-year-old Joshua and one-year-old Lauren, having children has been a blessing, despite the limitations of her condition.
“To anyone with a disability who wonders if they can handle having children, I say go for it,” says Mrs. Shone. “Even if it can be scary at times, they are the greatest joy in the world.”
Hoping to Have a Family
At age 14, Mrs. Shone was injured in an automobile accident and became paralyzed from the waist down. Later she met and married her husband, Richard, and together they considered the possibility of having children. After speaking with her obstetrician Catherine Sladowski, M.D., she was referred to the perinatologists at the Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine at Saint Barnabas Medical Center. |
Leon Smith Jr., M.D., Director of the Division, advised the Shones to complete their family before she turned 30 because her injury placed Mrs. Shone in a high risk category. Before becoming pregnant, she gradually stopped taking several medications and had a full physical.
To her delight, Mrs. Shone became pregnant and the initial months proceeded without complication. At sixth months of pregnancy, she was given an in-house monitoring system because her paralysis prevented her from feeling any contractions.
For two hours each day the machine took readings of the condition of the fetus. These readings were then faxed to the Division for review. Mrs. Shone also received numerous ultrasounds and ongoing fetal assessment. At the end of the pregnancy, as the weight became more difficult to manage, she was placed on bedrest.
Five weeks before her due date, Mrs. Shone went into labor and gave birth to a healthy baby, 6 pound, 8 ounce Joshua. Since she could not push during the process, physicians used specialized equipment with a suction to assist once the head appeared.
“The Maternal Fetal team was wonderful,” recalls Mrs. Shone. “I was scared but they made sure that everything went smoothly.”
| Caring for a Little One
Life with a new baby was challenging at first. Once Joshua moved to a crib in his room, her husband took over the nightly feedings because it took too long for Mrs. Shone to reach him. When he began crawling, she learned how to bend and scoop him up by wrapping her arm around his waist. The couple even devised a special seat belt that tied around mother and child when Joshua sat on his mother’s lap in the wheelchair.
On one occasion, Mrs. Shone slipped out of her chair and lay on the floor next to Joshua, unable to get up. She phoned her husband, who works nearby, and said, “I’m on the floor with our son. Can you come and get us?” Despite bumps in the road, Mrs. Shone maintains a positive attitude about the challenges of motherhood for a person with a disability.
“It is similar to when I first became paralyzed and had to learn everything all over again,” she says. “Children grow and change so quickly that I am always learning something new.”
Pleased with the success of their first pregnancy, the Shones welcomed 7 pound 9 ounce Lauren to the world 22 months after Joshua’s birth. |
[ Back to Newsletter Index ]
[ top ] |
|
|
