The Neuro-Affirming Midwife: Practical Care for Autistic & ADHD Parents from Pregnancy to Postnatal
Support safer, calmer care for neurodivergent parents-without adding work to a busy shift. This practical guide shows you how to provide neuro-affirming maternity care across antenatal, labour, birth, and the postnatal period. You'll get plain-language tools you can use in clinics, birth centres, labour wards, and home settings: checklists, scripts, templates, and quick sheets that help teams reduce sensory overload, improve consent conversations, and plan reasonable adjustments that meet legal duties and local policies.
What You'll Learn
Neuro-affirming practice basics:
language, sensory profiles, communication preferences, and shared decision-making.
Sensory-safe care:
lighting, noise, touch, gowning, monitoring, and quiet-room set-ups.
Communication & consent:
short scripts, visual aids, and briefing sheets for triage, induction, assisted birth, and caesarean.
Autistic care needs:
masking, monotropism, shutdowns/meltdowns, interoception, pain, and postnatal decompression.
ADHD care needs:
executive-function supports, appointment flow, medication considerations, feeding plans, and follow-up aids.
Birth planning:
creating a neurodivergent birth plan and documenting reasonable adjustments for continuity across shifts.
Risk & safety:
overload first-aid, grounding steps, and trauma-aware debriefs.
Team practice:
handover phrases, signage, and small changes that raise care quality across the pathway.
What's Inside
Ready-to-use tools:
birth plan template, consent and explanation scripts, sensory toolkit list, overstimulation response card, postnatal check prompts.
UK-friendly phrasing:
aligns with common NHS terms and roles while remaining useful internationally.
For the whole team:
midwives, maternity support workers, perinatal educators, doulas, and obstetric teams.
