About us

SCI parenting is a website created by The Spinalis Foundation. The website aims to increase the knowledge about fertility, pregnancy, childbirth and parenting for people with spinal cord injuries. We also want to support and encourage parents with spinal cord injuries.

About 6,000 people in Sweden live with a spinal cord injury. Many of these individuals are at an age where they consider starting a family. Having children requires major changes in any family. If one parent also has a spinal cord injury, many questions arise that can be difficult to answer. To reach and support parents with a spinal cord injury Spinalis administers several groups online on Facebook.

Core group

In 2013 three mothers in wheelchairs initiated a project to support and encourage persons with spinal cord injuries (SCI) to become parents.

The reason was the inconsistent level of medical knowledge across Sweden. Spinalis has gathered information and medical guidelines about fertility, pregnancy, childbirth and parenting for people with spinal cord injuries. It has then been spread to consumers and healthcare professionals across Sweden and published on this website.

The importance of having role models for parents with SCI cannot be underestimated. Therefore a network has been established, online and across Sweden, which has led to real empowerment for parents. Also, as there are few technical aids that have been developed for parents with disabilities, we have asked parents to share self-invented solutions on everyday challenges.

SCI Parenting (originally a Swedish project name Mamma pappa lam) was initiated by Nora Sandholdt, Erika Nilsson and Anna Oredsson. 

International work

The group working with SCI parenting has given more than a hundred lectures to healthcare professionals and consumers across Sweden. We have been invited to speak at conferences in Norway, Belarus, Croatia and even at the UN headquarters in New York. A Canadian, a Swiss and a Belarusian version of the webpage have been published.

Contact

SCI parenting is a website by The Spinalis Foundation. If you have any questions please contact us at info@spinalis.se.

Medical expertise

Claes Hultling

Claes Hultling, Med Dr, Professor, SCI Unit Karolinska University Hospital

Claes Hultling is a professor, doctor, lecturer and social debater. Claes has a PhD in the field of fertility in men with spinal cord injury. He himself has a son who was the first child in the world to be born with in vitro fertilization and who has a father with a spinal cord injury.

Karin Pettersson

Karin Pettersson, consultant, Obstetrics, Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, Karolinska University Hospital Huddinge.

Karin Pettersson is a medical doctor and associate professor at the Karolinska University Hospital. One of her special areas of interest is pregnancy in women with neurological conditions. Karin Pettersson is one of the Sweden’s most experienced medical doctors when it comes to pregnancy and childbirth in women with spinal cord injuries.