Due to a terrible car accident 16- years ago, Joni Vanderwoude was left paralyzed from the neck down.
But Vanderwoude of DeMotte, Indiana has never dwelled on the limitations of being a person with quadriplegia. Two years after the accident, she married her high school sweetheart, and four years later, they began trying to have children.
Contrary to what many people think, it is possible for most women who suffer from spinal cord injury to carry a child, and today, 36-year-old Vanderwoude is the proud mother of three healthy children.
6-year-old Jacqueline, 2-year-old Ryleigh, and 6-week-old Zachary, light up Vanderwoude’s life.
The newborn, Zachary, spends his days sleeping on his mother’s chest in a baby carrier fastened to the back of her wheelchair.
Because pregnancy for women with paralysis is uncommon, Vanderwoude is the only mother with quadriplegia who her doctor has treated in the last decade.
This pregnancy certainly comes with risks, including high blood pressure and dangerous blood clots.
But according to the Chicago Tribune, doctors say Vanderwoude is an inspiring example of how advances in fetal medicine, adaptive technology, and online support from social media and websites has made it possible for more women with paralysis to enjoy the beauty of motherhood.
“I can’t physically grab them, or pick them up,” Vanderwoude told the Tribune. “But just being here, and loving them and being there for them — that’s being a mom for me.”
Vanderwoude, unfortunately, has no feeling or use of her limbs and core muscles, and someone must turn her over at night so she doesn’t get bedsores. In the morning, she needs help showering, changing her catheter bag, brushing her teeth and changing clothes. Joni gets assistance three days per week by aides funded by Medicaid, and the rest of the week her husband Jason and volunteers from their church help Joni.
“She has been, by far, the strongest person through this all,” Jason Vanderwoude says of his wife. “Don’t get me wrong, there’s days it just plain stinks, where it’s hard not to go, ‘Why did this happen?’ … But she takes it with a grain of salt. It’s life — and here we are.”
Joni has decided to focus on what she can do, rather than what she can’t. She used to think how she’d never be able hold her children’s hands, until one day, Jacqueline instinctively started grabbing her mother’s pinkie. “She can’t dance on two feet, but multiple times a day, her children climb up the wheels of her wheelchair, plop down on her lap and giggle as she spins them in circles,” according to the Tribune.
Although difficult, this mom has made motherhood work, and she’s doing an amazing job!
To watch the video of Vanderwoude and her children, click here.
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[Featured Image Credit: Zbigniew Bzdak/Chicago Tribune]
Quadriplegic Woman Embraces Motherhood In Her Own Unique Way is an article from: LifeDaily