© Borgis - New Medicine 4/2013, s. 136-139
Krisztina Hodozsó1, *Zsuzsanna Soósné Kiss2, Petra Jakus3, Helga Judit Feith4, Sándor Hollós5, István Vingender6
Professional help for visually impaired mothers raising a child
1Health visitor student, Faculty of Health Care Sciences, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary
Head of Faculty: Zoltán Z. Nagy, MD, DSc
2Associate professor, Department of Clinical Health Care, Faculty of Health Care Sciences, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary
Head of Department: Gyula Domján, MD, DSc
3Health visitor student, Faculty of Health Care Sciences, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary
Head od Faculty: Zoltán Z. Nagy, MD, DSc.
4Associate professor, Department of Social Sciences, Faculty of Health Care Sciences, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary
Head of Department: Helga Judit Feith, PhD
5Professor, Faculty of Health Care Sciences, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary
Head od Faculty: Zoltán Z. Nagy, MD, DSc
6Professor, Department of Health Care Knowledge Establishment, Faculty of Health Care Sciences, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary
Head of Institution: István Vingender, PhD
Summary
Introduction. The operative laws in Hungary state that each person is entitled to equal treatment, while avoiding strengthening the judgment of one’s state as ’illness’. Professional guidelines do not make it necessary to care for the visually impaired mother as endangered, but it is recommended that they be cared for based on their special needs, imparting them higher attention.
Aim. The goal of our research is to get to know the difficulties and experiences of the visually impaired mother, as well as their expectations of professionals working in health care, in order to facilitate successful personal care. Our goal is also to examine their opinion regarding the attitude of professionals based on their personal experience during the use of health care services.
Material and methods. The research was done in Budapest and its surroundings among visually impaired mothers (n = 11) each parenting at least one child/young adult up to the age of 24, all agreeing that the interview be made in their homes. The interviews were taken between 3 August 2012 and 31 October 2012. The questions of the interview are divided into seven sections based on the examined topics: sociodemographical data, the opinion of visually impaired mothers on the attitude of health care professionals based on their experiences during the time of pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting, their relationships with their spouses, their contact with special institutions, and their expectations of any person helping them.
Results. The welcome of the pregnancy is positive on behalf of the family and neutral on behalf of professionals. The primary and most useful help is given to the mother by the family.
Conclusions. In order to give professionals help in offering services of higher efficience and better quality it is necessary to do further research on the topic, to get to know and publish the medical, social and other needs of visually impaired mothers as well as meeting these needs.
Introduction
Families expecting a child are helped by multiple departments of the social supportive system, in which health care is a prominent one (1).
Professionals in contact with families constantly need to adjust to changing trends in establishing a family (2).
The professional knowledge and the attitude of the profesional worker is essential in gaining the active participation of the client in protecting their health. In the case of a disabled person this feature grows exponentially. Optimal cooperation can be hindered by the prejudice of the professional on one hand, and by an intensified sensitivity of the disabled person on the other hand. The factors mentioned above and equal treatment that is required by the Hungarian law – emphasised specifically in health care – confirm the need of examining and encouraging the correct attitude towards the disabled. While caring for these people we must ensure that their consciousness of illness is not strengthened (3-6).
The number of the visually impaired in Hungary is 82.482, the number of visually impaired women is 49.528, from whom 8.043 are at a fertile age (15-49) (7).
Visual impairment means the loss of function in the eye, which results in the individual’s restricted communication and participation as the active member of society. Hungarian law states that the visually impaired are hindered in taking advantage of their rights compared to those living without impairment, therefore it is reasonable to give them advantage in every possible situation (8).
The definition and classification of visual impairment
Hungary uses the definition of WHO (World Health Organization), according to which „the person with a maximum of 30% or less vision on their better eye (V = 0,3), or with a maximum of a 20 degree field of vision counts as visually impaired”. „The field of vision is the part of space that a person sees while keeping the head and eye motionless”. The restriction of the field of vision can cause serious problems in orientation (9).
Based on the classification of WHO, (which is also used in special needs education in Hungary) there are three levels of visual impairment (tab. 1). Blindness is when no stimulus is perceived by the eye. People with extremely low vision are those whose vision is less than 10%. This group can be divided into three further groups: those with photosensitivity, those who see shapes and figures, and those who read using their fingers. Photosensitive people have a visus that cannot be measured. They use „blind techniques” in everyday life but they can use the small perception of light in orientation or when using transportation. Those who see shapes and figures, have a visus of maximum 4%. They are able to use the remainder of their perception in everyday life. They are capable of learning to read and write using optical or/and electronic tools. Most of them use Braille-reading. Those who read using their fingers (V = 0.04-0.1) are also capable of reading and writing using special tools, but their vision is not sufficient to be exclusively used for the purpose of orientation, they use other parts of the sensory system as well when educated. People with low vision have a visus of 10-30% They can rely on their sight exclusively when being educated. Their education happens visually in every possible case (10, 11).
Table 1. Classification of visual impairment based on visus and education.
Classification based on the severity
of impairment | Blind | Extremely low vision | Low vision |
| Photosenzitive people | Shapesand figures | Finger-readers |
| Visus | not measurable | not measurable | < 0.04 | 0.04-0.1 | 0.1-0.3 |
| Education | by touch | by touch | with special tools | with special tools | integrated education possible |
The aim of the research
There is extremely little literature on the topic of caring for visually impaired mothers raising a child. One of the goals of our research was filling this gap.
Other goals of our research were getting to know the circumstances of a child being born into the family among visually impaired mothers, finding the available sources of help in their environment in order to care for them efficiently, to study their relationships with special institutions for the visually impaired, to study the role of these relationship at this special time of their life, to study the welcome of their pregnancy, and to assess whether they really do receive higher attention when being cared for.
The aim of our present study is to study the welcome of the pregnancies of visually impaired mothers and summarizing the reactions of the family and professionals.
Methods of the research
Since there is hardly any literature on the topic, we put a lot of effort into researching the available literature.
After getting to know the literature, we contacted the mothers personally. Our research was in Budapest and surroundings, from 3 August 2012 to 31 October 2012. The interviews were taken in an environment that ensured a calm and unstressed conversation, most of the times in the homes of mothers. The interviews were registered by voice files and in written form as well. The mothers agreed to letting us use what had been said anonymously.
The questions of the interview can be divided into seven sections, based on the researched topics: sociodemografical data, the opinion of visually impaired mothers on the attitude of professionals based upon their experience throughout the time of pregnancy, birthgiving and parenting, their relationships with their spouses, their relationships with a special institutions for the visually impaired, their suggestions for and expectations of professionals. In our present study we will only present questions relevant to our present aim.
Sample
Our research was done among seven completely blind mothers, two with extremely low vision and two with low vision. The cause of their visual impairment is retinitis pigmentosa in one case, atrophia nervii optici in another case, retinopathia praematurorum in four cases, and unknown in five cases.
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Piśmiennictwo
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