This report details the story of a young woman with learning difficulties and her experience of having a baby. In a context where debate continues to rage around the choice of women with intellectual disability or learning difficulties to conceive, give birth and raise their children, this report offers insight into a woman’s relationship with the system of support offered through the health, disability, education and welfare fields.

It suggests that where informal supports are severely lacking ina woman’s life during her experience of having a baby, the role of the ‘system’ increases to meet this need, and as such bears particular responsibilities in the type of support that it offers.