Introduction: Special needs are still often a taboo subject in society. Physical disability strongly affects everyday life and access to healthcare services. Studies show that women with physical disabilities face various physical barriers, a lack of information, and astonished reactions from others during pregnancy and childbirth. Some research also reports dissatisfaction with midwifery care, while at the same time emphasizing the importance of partner support and appropriate communication by midwives, which can significantly improve the childbirth experience. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to present the experiences of pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period of physically challenged women, what they face, and the attitudes of health professionals towards them. Methods: We conducted three semi-structured interviews. Our interviewees were physically disabled women who had given birth in the last 20 years. We used qualitative content analysis to analyze the interviews, using MAXQDA (VERBI Software, 2022) to code and organize the data. Results: Many people do not consider that women with physical disabilities want to become mothers just like everyone else. However, they have to face many emotional and physical challenges that most people would not even think about. These include experiences with an (un)adapted healthcare system, reactions from those around them, physical limitations, access to relevant information about pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period, and many others. Discussion and conclusion: We gained great insight into the experience of pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period as a physically disabled person. The findings showed that all three interviewees had a positive experience of childbirth, which can be attributed to the midwife's attitude and the partner's support. However, they also encountered reservations on the part of some healthcare professionals. They expressed a desire for everyone to treat them as if their physical disability did not exist. We emphasize that communication is of key importance in midwifery or healthcare in any field. We are aware that communication is often lacking due to a lack of knowledge and experience in working with people with special needs or, in our case, with physical disabilities. We believe that this could be improved by introducing additional courses or lectures that would address working with people with physical disabilities.
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