WOMAN TO WOMAN: Learning from Each Other

by Wendy Crawford

When I was 19 years old, I sustained a spinal cord injury (SCI) as a result of an automobile accident. As a young woman with this new life before me, I had a myriad of questions for my doctors. The first was not the one usually asked by the Hollywood stereotype of a person who is newly injured: “Will I walk again?” My first question was, “Will I still be able to become pregnant and carry a child?” Fortunately, the answer was “yes,” but that was the last I heard about pregnancy with regard to SCI for many years.

Two years later, I consulted my physician about what forms of birth control would be suitable for me. I will never forget his answer: “Why don’t you have a hysterectomy and save yourself the nuisance of menstruation?” At the ripe old age of 21, I was appalled at the extremity of this alternative and also that the doctor assumed that I would even consider making such a monumental decision at such a young age.

Fast-forward to many years later, when I told my gynecologist that I was interested in becoming pregnant. At least he was honest; he admitted that he knew nothing about the complications that I might face while carrying a child or giving birth. We decided that we would both research the topic.

I called one of the leading rehabilitation centers in the United States. The people I spoke with were very polite and said that they didn’t really have any information on the subject, but could possibly give me an e-mail address of a patient in the area who was pregnant.

Surely, my situation is neither unique nor unprecedented; so why is finding information on women’s issues so difficult? After talking with numerous other women with similar situations, we all agreed that we needed a central, easily accessible source of information. It is because of my own personal journey of becoming a woman that I decided to form the Web site, mobilewomen.org.

The mission of mobilewomen.org is to bring together current and accurate information on issues of interest to women in wheelchairs and to enable them to learn from their most valuable resource: one another. Through a grant from the California Endowment Fund and a partnership with sciwire.com, an informative, long-running Web site provided by the W. M. Keck Center for Collaborative Neuroscience at Rutgers University, mobilewomen.org came into existence.

In the past 20 years, since I asked my first question as a quadriplegic, times have changed quite a bit. Women today are living their lives to the fullest. They attend college, have careers, raise children and are community leaders. It is often difficult being heard when you are a minority within a minority, but I believe that, as women with disabilities continue to grow and vocalize, society’s perspective will soon reflect this progress.

I have pondered whether we need another women’s liberation movement, as we had in the 1960s, but perhaps the change needs to take place in the world around us. We must come together and share our experiences, so that the strength we have gained as a community and as individuals becomes apparent to others. Empowered with knowledge, there are no limits, only the limits that we set upon ourselves.

To quote Margaret Mead, the famous anthropologist, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

Wendy Crawford is the founder and creator of mobilewomen.org. She lives in Miami, Florida.