Föräldrar med funktionshinder : om barn, föräldraskap och familjeliv

Sammanfattning: An increasing number of people with disabilities are choosing to become parents. However, several official goverment reports and other evidence points to the fact that parents with disabilities sometimes experience negative bias and distrust of their capacities as parents. The aim of this study is to describe and analyse aspects of parenthood in the families including parents with disabilities and/or chronic illness, as well as to illuminate concepts of an thoughts on parenthood and disability in these families. This is a qualitative interview study, complemented with structured diaries and network maps. The impairments or chronic illness of the parents in the eleven families of the study are cerebral palsy, spinal cord injury and multiple sclerosis. The different areas of the study are: the parents' reflections on becoming parents, the impact of the surrounding environment on the family, the effects of impairment or chronic illness in the family's everyday life and the parents' reflections on children and parenthood. The parents first and foremost describe their families as like any other families, but at the same time describe the special circumstances they live under. They work to handle the possibilities of negative consequences for the children with different strategies. The parents describe what they regard as the special experiences and knowledge that their children acquire which will benefit them as adults. The study recognises some dichotomous concepts relevant to different areas of family life in families with disabilities. The feeling the parents express of living in a world of double standpoints can be understood as ambivalence or in terms of embrace of paradox.