Many survivors of SCI irrationally believe that their injury has made it impossible to have a family. Even survivors who know it’s physically possible to have children sometimes feel that their disabilities preclude them from being parents. In some cases, friends and family even discourage survivors from fulfilling this dream, telling them that because they need care themselves, they won’t be able to adequately care for children. People who become injured after becoming parents worry that they won’t be “good enough” anymore.

The fact is, it doesn’t matter what the level or severity of the injury is. People with SCI are perfectly capable of being loving, supportive, nurturing, excellent parents. Those who were parents before their injury can continue to fulfill their role after their injury, and those who weren’t parents before their injury shouldn’t hesitate to move forward in this area of their life. Physical limitation are what they are—survivors will have to find new ways of doing things, but those things will not lessen the parent-child bond. Nor should physical limitations have any bearing on the decision on whether or not to have children.

I suggest anyone who believes survivors of SCI have difficulty parenting talk to another survivor who’s been in the parenting game for a bit of time. These survivors will tell you that, when all is said and done, their physical limitations have nothing to do with their ability to be good parents.