Disability is not asexuality: The childbearing experiences and aspirations of women with disability in Zimbabwe

Abstract

The aim of this article is to elucidate the childbearing experiences and aspirations of women with disability in Zimbabwe. The paper draws from a qualitative narrative study conducted by researchers at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, which explored the experiences of sexuality of disabled women in Zimbabwe and which used the Biographic Narrative Interpretive Method to generate data. In part, the study revealed that disabled women often encounter a diverse range of challenges that are associated with disability and which hinder them from realising their full sexual and reproductive health and rights. Some participants recounted that they are happy with the fact that they have their own biological children, albeit registering frustration with the fact that they are in most cases discriminated against both within and outside of reproductive healthcare centres. Participants who had not had any childbearing experiences by the time of the study reported that they aspired to have their own biological children. Whichever way, the women’s narratives are challenging the myth that women with disability do not require space in the childbearing arena because they are disabled.