Background: Mothers with intellectual disability are less likely than mothers without intellectual disability to breastfeed their infants, but there is little literature that addresses infant-feeding decisions among this population. This study explores experiences of mothers with intellectual disability in making and carrying out infant-feeding…

Background: Little is known about the experience of growing up with a mother with intellectual disability. The aim of this study was to explore this experience from the perspective of adult children. Method: In-depth interviews with 23 adult children brought up by mothers with moderate-to-severe intellectual disability. The interview data were…

People with cognitive difficulties often have scarce economic resources, and parents with cognitive difficulties are no exception. In this article, parents' experiences are put forth and discussed, for example, how does economic hardship affect family life? How do the parents experience support, what kind of strain does the scarce economy put on…

Background: Young adults, born to population-representative mothers with intellectual disability (ID), were targeted for psychosocial/life event follow-up. Methods: The whole group originally comprised 42 individuals but 3 had died and 1 had moved abroad. The remaining 38 were approached and 10 consented to participate in an interview study.…

Background: Despite the frequency with which mothers with intellectual disability have their children removed, little theoretical or empirical work has understood the mothers' perspectives on this. A few studies have reported mothers' feelings of grief and loss and their sense of powerlessness in the child protection system. Method: This…

There has been a great deal of attention paid to young carers in recent research, social policy and service provision. In this paper we report on a survey and interview study of 46 young people aged 15 to 18, nine of whom had experience as young carers, to explore the ways in which young people construct the young carer and their disabled parent.…

Women are expected to aspire to norms of femininity that include ideal motherhood, where mothers are positioned as ever available, ever nurturing providers of active, involved and expert mothering--indeed, being a caregiver is a master status for adult women in modernity. While this may be the case for all women, mothers who are disabled can have…

Using data from in-depth interviews with 20 children, this study finds that children with parents suffering from mental health distress struggle hard to present themselves as "normal" and equal among their peer group. The study shows how they avoid stigma in their presentation of self in everyday life. All the children in this study,…

Five cases of parenthood of persons with intellectual disability were reinvestigated about two years after a previous German study. Problem-centered interviews were conducted with mothers or fathers with an intellectual disability and with the caretakers. Results show developmental disability in two of six children and, in some cases,…