Autistic persons in the perinatal context: A mapping review of midwifery care, experiences, needs, and evidence

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. The publication reports one autistic author, without identifying them by name.

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Steinbrück, P. C., Byrne, S., & Tollenaere, E. (2026). Autistic persons in the perinatal context: A mapping review of midwifery care, experiences, needs, and evidence. Midwifery, 162, Article 104936. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.midw.2026.104936

Publication date: 6 Aug 2026 Added to AutiHub: 7 Oct 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) Full text OpenAlex source

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Authors

Publication authors
3
Autistic authors reported by the publication
1
  1. Pia-Cecilia Steinbrück
  2. Sadhbh Byrne
  3. Elizabeth Tollenaere

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Autistic people represent a substantial and probably under-recognised population within reproductive and maternity services. Maternity care nevertheless continues to rely on neurotypical assumptions about communication, sensory tolerance, pain expression, emotional display, and help-seeking. AIM: To map the scope, distribution, and thematic content of literature on autistic people's experiences and support needs across pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum care, and infant feeding, and to identify implications for maternity service design and midwifery practice. METHODS: A mapping review was conducted using a systematic literature search. The search returned 73 relevant records. After title and abstract screening and focused relevance assessment, 25 papers were included in the final evidence map. Studies were categorized by design, perinatal stage, and thematic focus, and were synthesised narratively. RESULTS: The final map comprised 7 reviews or evidence syntheses, 9 qualitative studies, 4 survey studies, 2 cohort or comparative quantitative studies, and 3 practice-focused or contextual papers. The literature clustered most significantly around pregnancy and childbirth. Across study designs, the most consistent findings concerned sensory overload, communication barriers, poor fit between autistic needs and routine maternity care, unmet support needs, and dissatisfaction with standard care environments. Evidence on clinical outcomes and midwives' own experiences remained limited. CONCLUSION: Avoidable distress commonly arises from the interaction between autistic sensory and communication needs and inflexible maternity systems. Accessible care requires predictable and multimodal communication, consent-based touch, sensory adjustment, continuity where possible, tailored postnatal and feeding support, and co-designed pathways. Research should now evaluate implementation, sustainability, and outcomes in routine maternity services with autistic people as partners.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 27 Oct 2026 06:41.

Cited references
37
With a DOI
30
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
7
9 / 37 (24.3%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
0 / 37 (0.0%)
References with detected author names
37 / 37 (100.0%)
Without detected author names
0
Without a structured title
0
Without a stable identifier
7
References with raw author names still to review
0
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
171
From DOI or external metadata
171
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
0
64 / 171 (37.4%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 107 / 171 (62.6%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
18 / 171 (10.5%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 18 / 64 (28.1%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 13 / 148 (8.8%).
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