Because of her blindness, Ebony Uamaki was bullied as a youngster, but you’d think that by the time she was an adult, she’d moved past it.

However, that was nothing in comparison to what her prenatal care providers informed her.
Her doctor didn’t congratulate her; instead, he expressed doubts about her parenting skills.

This perspective perfectly describes Ebony’s largest challenge in adjusting to her disability: other people’s thoughts and attitudes.

She overcame them all and went on to become an admirable mother to four young children, all under the age of four.

At the age of two, with just 5% vision, the now-29-year-old Brisbane resident was identified as having retinitis pigmentosa (RP).

She currently only has 1% vision in her left eye, is blind in her right eye, and is only able to distinguish between day and night by looking at shadows.

She has nevertheless raised four-year-old Arorangi, three-year-old Tavake, and one-year-old twins Manaia and Koia in a loving home.

She was aware of the challenges being a mother would bring. For instance, she is unable to drive.

Even worse, a lot of people don’t think she’ll be able to take care of her kids.

She said there was a lot of uncertainty about whether she could parent because she is blind and whether she would require a lot of assistance.

Ebony first met Adam in the middle of 2016, and by the end of the year, she was pregnant.

The couple went to Ebony’s doctor for a normal check-up in January 2017 when she was five weeks pregnant.

They were eager to become parents and were met with uncomfortable conversations from her doctor.

According to Ebony, ‘She recommended termination on several occasions throughout the consultation, which

was quite shocking to me at the time,’ because I might pass the disease on to my children.The doctor also questioned her ability to be a mom.

I felt extremely dejected after that consultation, and it brought back everything from the past, Ebony remarked.

A little less than two weeks later, Ebony miscarried. The choice to change doctors was straightforward.

In April, she found out she was expecting Arorangi, who is now four years old.

Because I came from a large family, she continued, ‘I’ve always wanted to have kids and to have a big family.’