[blparent] hospital or parent was Re: introduction, expecting

[Marsha Drenth]

I am not sure what makes the difference on whether or not a blind parent has issues or not. I am not questioning why social services gets involved, but that they do. Its a problem with so many different avenues. So we have the social workers, hospital workers, nurses, doctors, administrators, custody evaluators, social services, child protective services, who all need education. can't forget about the lawyers. But then you have those blind parents, who might not have the parenting skills that they should. they might not have the resources to know about the  NFB, or know of other blind parents. So we must go in, teach them, give them those skills that they are lacking. If its for another reason they choose to have their parental rights terminated then that is their right. Atleast we can say, we didn't give them the skills to be a parent without sight. I do think confidence is a big issue, and that is where we come in  ,if we have people around the country who can mentor other parents. help boost their confidence, getting rid of the misconceptions that they might have have against being a parent because of their blindness. blind parents can't go to our training centers, but send in a blind parent, who has the skills to teach another parent the skills. 

This is just myopiniion, 

Marsha drenthSent from my iPhone

On Aug 11, 2012, at 7:29 PM, Bernadetta Pracon <bernadetta_pracon at samobile.net> wrote:

> It's interesting that hospitals involve child services right away, before the baby can be released. I'm wondering if it's just because hospitals aren't educated about blindness and parenting, or if it has to do with the parents involved. I'm saying this because, though I was observed extensively as I said in a previous email, I wasn't threatened with child services. Could it be that the demeanor of the blind parents dictates some of what the hospital staff puts them through?
> I don't mean to be judgmental or criticize people I don't know, but perhaps it would benefit some new or perspective parents to get some pointers on what they should and shouldn't do or say when people are challenging their ability to care for their child.
> Who's to say that some people really aren't capable of caring for their child. Can we honestly say that in each case in which parental custody was terminated due to a hospital's intervention, the termination was unfounded?
> I'm sure there have been some cases where a parent or a set of parents either conveyed that they wouldn't be able to care for their child successfully, or in fact, were incapable of doing so. It might not necessarily have to do with their blindness in general, but with issues stemming from their blindness.
> I think it's great that people are advocating for hospitals to be more educated about parenting as a blind person, but maybe it's not always the hospital's fault. It seems that the majority of parents who say that they haven't had any issues with child services are the ones who exude confidence and seem competent, while those who claim they have had issues with people intervening to the point where their custodial rights were terminated seem a bit more unsure and don't know how to hold their own when it comes to state workers and hospital staff. When I was pregnant, I felt that the possibility of having my child taken away by social services should be on the top of my list of concerns. But the more I observe, the more I understand that the majority of blind parents seem to say that they didn't face issues to that extent.
> I don't mean for this message to be inflamatory; it's just something I've been wondering about.
> 
> Bernadetta
> 
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