Shattered Dreams--Lonely Choices

Shattered Dreams--Lonely Choices PDF Author: Joanne Finnegan
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313369623
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 208

Get Book Here

Book Description
Dreams of pregnancy include the expectation that nine months of waiting will end with a joyous event. But, each year, a shattered dream occurs for thousands of couples who receive the news that their child will have a disabling condition severe enough that they may question if they are the best parents for their child. Societal expectation is that parents will raise their child or, if the condition of the child is detected prenatally, abortion is offered as an alternative. Parents who explore other options face scrutiny and, sometimes, condemnation--lonely choices. Joanne Finnegan shares her personal experience and that of several families she interviewed who, like herself, explored options other than raising their child with a disability. Parents express with candor the overwhelming pain they felt when receiving the news, the frustration when searching for options, the no-win feeling of decision making, the resolve with a final decision, and finally, life after the decision. Parent quotes also address issues such as spiritual dilemmas and interactions with friends, family, their other children, and medical professionals. Words of advice for new parents include how to build support systems and gather information, how to search for an adoptive family, and arranging the details of communication between adoptive and birth parents. Interviews with adoptive parents, poetry, and extensive resource lists complete the book. Written as a gift for other parents to help them cope with the pain and loneliness of decision making, this book will also be a valuable resource for medical professionals, adoption and social workers, counselors and spiritual advisors, and friends and family of the parents. It is a helpful as well as a deeply therapeutic book, providing a strong lesson in how to manage during this stressful time, from receiving the news about the baby's condition and prognosis, to weighing the factors involved in the various decisions. Should one take the baby home from the hospital? If not home, then where? Foster care, respite care, guardianship, and other forms of substitute care are mentioned. The author also examines decisions about finances and support services, family issues, finalizing an adoption plan, living with the decision, regrets, and future pregnancies.

Handbook of Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health

Handbook of Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health PDF Author: Gina M. Wingood
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9780306466519
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 498

Get Book Here

Book Description
Medical researchers, including those in behavioral sciences and health education, as well as contributors from communications, social sciences, history, and other fields summarize in depth the epidemiology, social and behavioral correlates, effective intervention and prevention strategies, and health policies related to women's sexual and reproductive health. First they explore how women's vulnerability to adverse sexual and reproductive health consequences is increased by a wide range of biological and social factors. Then they take a life-span approach to issues, and finally examine ethical and legal issues. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR.

Fundamentals of Perinatal Social Work

Fundamentals of Perinatal Social Work PDF Author: Regina F Lind
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136372008
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 193

Get Book Here

Book Description
Fundamentals of Perinatal Social Work: A Guide for Clinical Practice provides perinatal social work students and beginning practitioners with an overview of the basics of perinatal social work theory and practice, allowing you to identify and promote a healthy social and emotional environment for pregnant women and/or infants. This book covers the knowledge bases of obstetric and neonatal medicine--and other specialized topics--as applied to social work practice that you’ll need to be familiar with in order to provide effective care for mother and child. As a guide for new workers, students, and experienced social workers in perinatal settings, Fundamentals of Perinatal Social Work is the only book to approach the topic with the necessary overview of medical information. Beyond the history and basics of perinatal and medical social work, you’ll also learn about such related topics as: adoption postpartum depression mental illness diabetes Often, students and new workers find themselves overwhelmed with the medical information and technology they must understand in order to function in perinatal social work. The literature that guides the social work practice is shared with medicine, nursing, public health, and others, and the busy student and new worker do not have the time to gather a body of literature to use as a reference. Fundamentals of Perinatal Social Work provides such a reference and illustrates the depth and breadth the field of perinatal social work has come to encompass today. Perinatal social workers are no longer employed only in hospital settings, but work in AIDS clinics, public health settings, ethics centers, and private practice. Whatever the setting, the goal of perinatal social work is still the same--to maximize the potential of every infant and every family. This book helps you achieve that goal.

Emma's Laugh

Emma's Laugh PDF Author: Diana Kupershmit
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1647421136
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 268

Get Book Here

Book Description
As Diana surveyed her newborn baby's face, languid body, and absent cry, she knew something was wrong. Then the doctors delivered devastating news: her first child, Emma, had been born with a rare genetic disorder that would leave her profoundly physically and intellectually disabled. Diana imagined life with a child with disabilities as a dark and insular one—a life in which she would be forced to exist in the periphery alongside her daughter. Convinced of her inability to love her “imperfect” child and give her the best care and life she deserved, Diana gave Emma up for adoption. But as with all things that are meant to be, Emma found her way back home. As Emma grew, Diana watched her live life determinedly and unapologetically, radiating love always. Emma evolved from a survivor to a warrior, and the little girl that Diana didn’t think she could love enough rearranged her heart. In her short eighteen years of life, Emma gifted her family the indelible lesson of the healing and redemptive power of love. This is a mother’s requiem to her perfectly imperfect child—a child who left too soon, but whose lessons continue to inspire a life lived and loved.

Let All the Children Come

Let All the Children Come PDF Author: Phyllis Kilbourn
Publisher: CLC Publications
ISBN: 1619581280
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 472

Get Book Here

Book Description
In order to minister more effectively to children with disabilities, we first must understand the context surrounding children with disabilities and the consequences of disability on them. This book, complied by Phyliss Kilbourn, provides helpful training to those who desire to engage in more informed ministry to disabled children.

Adoption

Adoption PDF Author: Barbara A. Moe
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1598840304
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 360

Get Book Here

Book Description
This compilation of the best thinking about adoption by both historical and current authorities reveals a vital, ever-changing practice affecting the lives of millions of people around the globe. The ancient practice of adoption has changed significantly through history. In colonial America, parents adopted out their unwanted children—those who were "rude, stubborn, and unruly"—to other families. Today, Americans go abroad looking for children to adopt, and have adopted more than a quarter million internationally. Adoption: A Reference Handbook, Second Edition not only traces the development of expert thinking about adoption, it also looks at both sides of the latest controversial issues. Should adoptions be open or closed? Should the government regulate adoptions more closely—or less? This updated second edition offers an international perspective with a new chapter on how countries outside the United States provide adoption services. This work is an indispensable resource for those thinking about adoption or researching its history.

Consuming Motherhood

Consuming Motherhood PDF Author: Janelle S. Taylor
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 9780813534305
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 348

Get Book Here

Book Description
'Consuming Motherhood' addresses the provocative question of how motherhood & consumption, as ideologies & as patterns of social action, mutally shape & constitute each other in contemporary life.

Reconstructing Motherhood and Disability in the Age of Perfect Babies

Reconstructing Motherhood and Disability in the Age of Perfect Babies PDF Author: Gail Landsman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135963789
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 289

Get Book Here

Book Description
Examining mothers of newly diagnosed disabled children within the context of new reproductive technologies and the discourse of choice, this book uses anthropology and disability studies to revise the concept of "normal" and to establish a social environment in which the expression of full lives will prevail.

Handbook of Psychological Treatment Protocols for Children and Adolescents

Handbook of Psychological Treatment Protocols for Children and Adolescents PDF Author: Vincent B. Van Hasselt
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135693021
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 663

Get Book Here

Book Description
Drawing together systematic, empirically-based guidelines for accountable clinical work with children and adolescents with varying presenting problems, this book is a compendium of state-of-the-art treatment manuals. Specific instructions and relevant case illustrations facilitate the practitioner's efforts to replicate the approaches.

Living Through Loss

Living Through Loss PDF Author: Nancy R. Hooyman
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231122470
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 480

Get Book Here

Book Description
Hooyman and Kramer's starting point is that loss comes in many forms and can include not only suffering the death of a person one loves but also giving birth to a child with disabilities, living with chronic illness, or being abused, assaulted, or otherwise traumatized. They approach loss from the perspective of the resilience model, which acknowledges the capacity of people to integrate loss into their lives, and write sensitively about the role of age, race, culture, sexual orientation, gender, and spirituality in a person's response to loss. – from publisher information.