Mothers with intellectual disabilities

For the theoretical part of this master's thesis foreign literature and finished foreign researches were studied. In this part of the thesis the characteristics of mothers with intellectual disabilities; factors, which influence the success of carrying out their mother role; and the rights of people with intellectual disabilities as parents, all based on Slovene legislation are included. We listed reasons for limiting reproduction for women with intellectual disabilities and issues concerning losing custody of their children. Included are sources and forms of formal and informal support, which mothers with intellectual disabilities need or want, and their mother role. The qualitative research for the empirical part of the thesis is based on five mothers with intellectual disabilities, who are of different age and have the experience of birthing and raising a child, one person from mother's family or friends' circle and one social worker who helps the mother now or has done so in the past. We were interested in different things: how mothers with intellectual disabilities deal with their mother role; what kind of support have these mothers received from their pregnancy onward; how do they evaluate this support; how different participants evaluate formal and informal support, that mothers with intellectual disabilities receive; and what kind of differences occur among these mothers in pregnancy planning, being successful mothers and received support regarding the level of disability, age and life circumstances. It can be concluded that all mothers connect their motherhood with positive feelings, some also with responsibility and care connected to fulfilling children's needs. All of them are satisfied with the received support. According to social workers and individuals from an inner family or friends' circle some of these mothers could not be independent mothers for even they themselves are too dependent on family support to function properly. According to them only one of these mothers could be a mother on her own. In general, individuals from an inner family or friends' circle are satisfied with the formal support given to the mother. In terms of informal support some of these individuals point to the lack of support from one of the family members or friends' circle. According to the social workers two of these mothers have strong parents' support and two of these mothers have low partner's support. These mothers have received formal support from their pregnancy onward in the form of antenatal classes, learning practical skills in the maternity hospital and from home care nurses. They also received advice and guidance, help with searching additional sources of help and solving problems with their partners from social workers and psychologists. They receive informal support from their partners, parents, siblings and friends in form of helping in child care and upbringing, doing housework, transportation and also in form of advice, guidance, moral support, and teaching practical skills. According to social workers, family, friends and mothers themselves, they should get more information about the pregnancy and labour in antenatal classes adjusted to mothers' learning skills. They should also get help with children's school work. Based on the analyzed data it is possible to find connection among pregnancy planning, living with a partner, the level of intellectual disability, other disabilities and health issues, intensity of support, living with parents, time period, in which they gave birth, and support received from their parents for mothers with intellectual disabilities to become successful mothers