06/01/2026
Becoming disabled is a crash course in giving and receiving care, adapting to the unexpected, and accepting imperfection—all of which are crucial for parents, Jessica Slice wrote in 2025. https://theatln.tc/s9erBSkB
Slice has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, and an associated neurological condition, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. When she adopted her daughter and started meeting up with other moms, she noticed that she seemed to be having an easier time than they were adjusting to parenthood. Over the past few years, she’s interviewed dozens of disabled and nondisabled parents from various racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. “I now believe that being disabled and learning from disability culture both prepared me for the challenges of early parenthood and ultimately set me up to be a more creative and flexible caregiver,” she writes.
“One way to think about the first week of parenthood is as a time when a large portion of a family is or becomes temporarily disabled. Not only does a new baby require relentless attention, but whoever gave birth also typically does. Even if you adopted a child, as I did, you’re likely exhausted,” she continues.
The nondisabled people Slice talked with were coming to terms with the reality that we cannot make our babies or our body do what we want them to. “The disabled people I spoke with, by contrast, had spent years of living in a body that rebelled and failed, and many had learned the hard way that recovery from surgery is long and arduous and that the body is impossible to predict,” she writes.
After becoming disabled at 28, Slice found herself learning to embrace imperfection and more willing to accept help, qualities that proved important when she became a parent. “You don’t have to be disabled to adopt this mindset,” she continues. For any parent it “might mean not obsessing over the expensive stroller you can’t afford and instead making do with the safe one passed down from a neighbor. In others, it might mean asking for more help at night. Once you learn to show yourself compassion, you may finally see, as I did, that you are giving your baby exactly what they need.”
🎨: Holly Stapleton
