Unfit Parent: A Disabled Mother Challenges an Inaccessible World

Slice (coauthor, Dateable: Swiping Right, Hooking Up, and Settling Down While Chronically Ill and Disabled) shares, with no holds barred, her experiences as a parent living with a disability. After a hike with her husband triggered a shift in her autonomic nervous system, Slice was diagnosed with a genetic condition that affects connective tissues, joints, blood vessel walls, and more. It also can cause neurological complications. The condition worsened, and Slice began to experience a rapid heart rate when she stood. Standing, eating, and other day-to-day activities send her body into fight and flight mode. A mother of two children, she uses her book to show that pregnancy and labor alone are infinitely more complicated for people who have a disability, and it is cost-prohibitive and near-impossible to find accessible baby equipment. Exorbitant childcare costs, unfriendly employment policies, and costly medical care are other issues in the United States that are exacerbated for people who have disabilities.