Invisible Mums with Kelly-Marie Stewart

6 Comments Monday Mumpreneurs

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.