Karen Hodge didn’t let a spinal cord injury at the age of 15 stop her from living her life to the fullest.

When the time came to think about starting a family, Karen and her husband were surprised to discover how little information was available related to spinal cord injury and pregnancy. Karen is now the mother of two healthy children. She vowed during her first pregnancy that she would help women with spinal cord injuries have easier access to knowledgeable information about pregnancy and parenting. In 2013, she reconnected with the various professionals she had met who had an expertise in this area and together they formed the Spinal Cord Injury Perinatal Interest Group; a multi-disciplinary (nurses, researchers, physician, and mother with a SCI, social worker) collaboration between multiple agencies (Spinal Cord Injury BC, BC Women’s Hospital, Vancouver Coastal Health, Rick Hansen Institute).

Karen’s personal experience and the collective clinical expertise of the group has led to a milestone achievement, the launch of the Pregnancy and Spinal Cord Injury: an information booklet for women with spinal cord injury on Mothers Day 2015.

Get the booklet

This booklet is freely available in both print and online and finally gives women with spinal cord injury the information they need to make informed decisions when embarking on the journey to motherhood.