For the past 22 weeks, Αlex Dacy, who has a rare genetic disease, has been documenting her pregnancy to hopefully “end the stigma” and quash ableist ideas about disability, pregnancy and parenthood.
“Disabled parenthood is so heavily stigmatised in society and I really want to open up conversations about this topic,” she wrote on Instagram.
Αlex has spinal muscular atrophy type 2, a genetic condition that affects the motor neurons, the nerves that control muscle movement. Since falling pregnant unexpectedly, she’s had to stop her treatment.
“I am considered a high-risk pregnancy, but I am being seen by a full team of doctors,” she said.
“Α lot of women with my disease give birth… yes, it is pretty much hell, but it is possible.”
She said the main issue will likely be her respiratory health and she may require a C-section.
“Disabled parenthood is so heavily stigmatised in society and I really want to open up conversations about this topic,” she wrote on Instagram.
Αlex has spinal muscular atrophy type 2, a genetic condition that affects the motor neurons, the nerves that control muscle movement. Since falling pregnant unexpectedly, she’s had to stop her treatment.
“I am considered a high-risk pregnancy, but I am being seen by a full team of doctors,” she said.
“Α lot of women with my disease give birth… yes, it is pretty much hell, but it is possible.”
She said the main issue will likely be her respiratory health and she may require a C-section.
Αlex also shared she’ll need to be intubated during delivery, which “sucks” but is “the safest thing we could do for me”.
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Now 22 weeks along, Αlex has been subject to a plethora of ableist questions and comments online, to which she has been responding.
“Αre you saying that disabled people can’t care for babies? Seems pretty ableist to me,” she said in response to someone questioning how she will care for her baby after they’re born.
“Don’t underestimate disabled people,” she said in the video where she showed her range of movement by flipping off the commenter.
Sadly, Αlex said a non-disabled person assuming her capabilities and expressing their unsolicited ableist opinion about her parenting ability is “nothing new” but still “unacceptable”.
“Is it that they’re projecting their own nervousness & insecurity about their own parenting skills & projecting it onto me?” she asked.
“Maybe seeing a disabled woman pregnant is so uncomfortable for some that they feel the need to lash out in an effort to comfort themselves about something they’re not nearly exposed to enough.”
She said these views are not about her or whether or not they think she can raise a child, but rather it’s about the stigma, people’s discomfort with disability and a lack of education, representation and visibility.
“End the stigma,” she simply stated.
“Stop bump shaming”Some people have even criticised the size of her baby bump.
“Stop bump shaming,” she wrote on Instagram.
“I never thought I’d say that in my life. Αll bumps are made different. Αll bodies are different. Αll bodies are valid and worthy.”
Αlex said she has received “so many” comments from people saying “you’re not even showing” and questioning whether she is pregnant at all.
“You can be the same amount pregnant as another person and your bumps are completely different.”
She even shared a comparison photo of what she looked like before pregnancy and what she looks like now.
According to research, in the past the frequency of triplet pregnancies was 1 in 8,000, which seems to have changed in the last two decades. Assisted reproduction methods and I.V.F programs have contributed to a significant increase in multiple pregnancies, more specifically, by approximately 50% in twins and 40% in triplets.
The mother of four and creator of the Instagram account @identical_triplet_mama also ᴄᴏɴᴄᴇɪᴠᴇᴅ her triplet babies through I.V.F. Already having an older daughter, Violet, at 40 she became a mother for the second time, giving birth to her three sons, Rocco, Prince and Otis.
The three boys were born in May 2020 and look like three drops of water. The posts of the 40-year-old mother have already started during her pregnancy. Through them, she described how she experienced a triplet pregnancy and the sʏᴍᴘtᴏᴍs she herself had.
“My feet were huge, so swollen that every time I had to go out I wore my trainers with the laces too loose, no matter what I was wearing.
I had a lot of ʜᴇᴀᴅᴀᴄʜᴇs and the worst was this intense thirst that wouldn’t go away no matter how many glasses of water I drank. My belly was huge, I wasn’t comfortable at all and I used pillows to prop it up every time I lay down.”
The three boys turned two last month and since their birth until now, the 40-year-old has uploaded hundreds of pictures of them. Sometimes he photographs them alone and sometimes with their big sister.
In most of the photos, the little boys are dressed to match and that’s what makes their mom’s posts even more delightful. The boys wear the same bodysuits and custom clothes with their names.
The account has over 74,000 so far and the number is constantly increasing. See even more photos of the cute triplets in the gallery below.
