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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Kiran Stacey Political correspondent

‘I was devastated’: MP hopes her story will help improve maternity care for disabled women

Marie Tidball in Westminster
Marie Tidball wants to see new NHS guidelines on how to care for disabled mothers and their children. Photograph: Sarah Lee/The Guardian

When doctors tried to work out whether Marie Tidball would need a specially designed birth plan, one asked her to lie fully clothed on the bed and spread her legs in the air so they could see how far they could open.

The incident was one of several occasions when Tidball, now a Labour MP, felt neglected during her pregnancy and early motherhood because of the NHS’s failure to adapt on account of her physical disabilities. Tidball has physical impairments affecting all four of her limbs and had major surgeries on both her hips and legs as a child.

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