Pregnancy and Disability: A Scoping Review of the Rehabilitation Counseling Literature

Abstract

Pregnancy is a common occurrence for individuals with disabilities. However, people with disabilities have historically been kept from pregnancy and parenthood due to societal bias. There has been limited research in rehabilitation counseling and rehabilitation psychology about the intersection of disability, pregnancy, and employment. The purpose of the study was to explore the breadth of extant rehabilitation counseling and psychology literature on pregnancy and disability with the scoping review methodology. Nine search terms were used to search eight rehabilitation counseling and rehabilitation psychology journals from January 1973 to March 2023. A total of 237 articles were found that had one of the search terms, and out of those nine articles were assessed to be relevant for the discussion on disability and pregnancy. The results show a small, but long-standing call to promote a line of research to best support the independent living goals of pregnancy and parenthood for full community participation of people with chronic illness and disability.