Neurodivergent-Inclusive Maternity Care: A Practical Guide for Professionals

Why This Matters

Neurodivergent individuals, including those with ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia, or sensory processing differences, experience pregnancy, birth, and early parenthood through a unique cognitive and sensory lens. Yet most maternity care pathways are built around neurotypical expectations, leading to unmet needs, increased distress, and poorer health outcomes.

• A lot of Autistic adults may mask their needs during medical appointments to avoid being judged or misunderstood.
• ADHD and Autism are underdiagnosed in women, and often only recognised when the cognitive demands of pregnancy and parenting exacerbate executive function difficulties.
• Emotional dysregulation, sensory sensitivities, and rejection sensitivity dysphoria (RSD) all increase during the perinatal period and contribute to maternal distress, anxiety, and even suicidality.

Importantly, many neurodivergent parents do not yet have a formal diagnosis or may not recognise themselves as neurodivergent until well into parenthood. This makes individualised, neurodiversity-affirming care planning essential for every parent, not just those who disclose a diagnosis.

Key Principles for Neurodivergent-Affirming Care

1. Sensory-Aware Practice

Many neurodivergent people experience sensory hypersensitivity or hyposensitivity. The perinatal environment, with its bright lights, unpredictable noise, strong smells, and frequent touch, can be overwhelming.

Practical actions:

• Offer quiet, low-stimulation waiting spaces.
• Reduce fluorescent lighting where possible.
• Ask before touching and explain what you’re doing step by step.
• Encourage noise-cancelling headphones, fidgets, sunglasses, or sensory tools during care.

Touch, light, and sound can make a neurodivergent person shut down. They need their care space to feel safe to function.

2. Executive Function Support

Neurodivergence can affect working memory, time awareness, planning, and emotional regulation, skills that healthcare systems often assume are in place.

Practical actions:

• Give written appointment summaries or bullet-point plans.
• Break down tasks into manageable chunks.
• Use reminders, visual schedules, and concrete timelines.
• Avoid information overload and deliver key information slowly and clearly.

Medical settings can be a maze of noise and instructions that trigger shutdowns.

3. Communication Preferences and Processing Time

Processing verbal information under stress is challenging for many neurodivergent people, so literal language and extra time to process questions may be required.

Practical actions:

• Speak clearly and avoid metaphors or idioms.
• Give time for the parent to answer; silence isn’t noncompliance.
• Offer communication support tools, e.g. scripts or visual aids.
• Document communication preferences in the care plan.

4. Mental Health, RSD, and Trauma Awareness

Neurodivergent parents are more likely to have experienced trauma, discrimination, or misdiagnosis. Emotional dysregulation, burnout, and RSD increase vulnerability during pregnancy and postpartum.

Practical actions:

• Ask about previous experiences with healthcare.
• Frame care as collaborative, not corrective.
• Normalise emotional expression and distress as valid.
• Signpost ADHD, autism, and trauma-informed mental health support.

Suicide is the leading cause of maternal death in the UK, and neurodivergent women are at significantly elevated risk. Recognising distress early and offering nonjudgmental support is lifesaving.

5. Validate and Empower Neurodivergent Strengths

Healthcare frameworks frequently pathologise neurodivergent behaviours such as scripting, stimming, and obsessive planning as signs of anxiety or non-compliance.

Practical actions:

• Ask “What helps you feel safe?” rather than “What symptoms do you have?”
• Encourage use of sensory tools, scripts, and self-advocacy aids.
• Respect the parent as the expert in their experience.
• Recognise that neurodivergent adaptations are intelligent, not dysfunctional.

Just because someone does things differently doesn’t mean they don’t love or parent well. It just needs to make sense for their brain.

If you are a health professional reading this, you may be neurodivergent yourself. You’re not alone. There’s a peer-led Facebook support group for neurodivergent midwives and student midwives. Contact Laura@neuronatal.net to connect.

Further Information

To learn more about neurodivergence in the perinatal period and how to embed inclusive practice, you can also access the NeuroNatal Academy’s CPD-accredited training programme. It covers executive function, sensory support, communication tools, and trauma-informed care for neurodivergent families. Visit https://www.neuronatal.org or contact Laura@neuronatal.net for more information.