Invisible Mums with Kelly-Marie Stewart
Friend of Mums Got a Business Kelly-Marie Stewart is a British Actress best known for playing the loveable Hayley Ramsey in hit Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks and is now campaigning to try help raise awareness for disabled parents. Kelly has Guillain-Barre syndrome – an acute disease of the peripheral nervous system, which affects the nerves in the arms and legs. She explains ...
"While I was pregnant and also in a wheelchair I found the lack of advice, support and equipment for disabled parents was next to none. I found it hard to believe that the man next door had a baby seat for his bike but I couldn't get a baby seat for my wheelchair to enable me to safely interact independently with my baby. I researched and researched there was nothing no support no one employed in the hospital for this and I was very much alone."
The lack of support and equipment on the market has motivated Kelly-Marie to raise awareness. She has been filming a documentary, called Disabled with a Baby, and got involved with a campaign called Invisible Mums. The footage has had interest from BBC3 and Channel 4, and a taster video uploaded to YouTube has had more than 12,000 views. Take a look:
Kelly is asking us all to help her by signing the Invisible Mums e-petition.She hopes to achieve the following in parliament:
- Raise awareness for the lack of support for disabled parents.
- Make more specialist equipment readily available to disabled parents.
- Give more advice and support to disabled parents during pregnancy and afterwards.
- Have a dedicated member of hospital staff to advise on coping strategies and how to manage when baby is born to ensure health & wellbeing of both mum and baby.
An official government petition has now been created online requiring 100,000 signatures to raise these issues in parliament. Please take a moment of your time and sign the e-petition and please help spread the word.
Lovely to have you here on Mums Got a Business Kelly. Good luck with your campaign. Come back and let us know how you’re getting on xx
Wow, What an amazing woman you are Kelly. Go you. I’ll definitely sign the petition. I really hope the ‘invisible Mums’ get the help they need. xx
Thank you heather for such a lovely piece supporting invisible mums it is support from people like you that will help to change the future for so many disabled parents and more importantly there beautifull children 🙂 xxx
Thank you too Gina your support means a lot x @kellymariestewa
Great cause and have signed
Bex @ The Mummy Adventure recently posted..Becoming a Father
What a wonderful cause, and how well you are throwing yourself into helping other mums out there. I will definitely sign the petition. xx
Helen Neale recently posted..Move away from that screen! Tips for encouraging outdoor play
Fantastic! Did you create the wheelchair babyseat?