Emma Radford

White to red faded background with doodle of a pile of books. Title is in a banner “New book: Autism and pregnancy.”

Doodles of parents with babies along the top. Image of a book cover with multiple pregnant people on it. Aimee wrote a book! Aimee (our lead investigator) has been doing research on Autistic people’s maternity experiences since 2021. She wrote a book which is aiming to be easy to read.

Autistic people said they didn’t get enough information about pregnancy. This book… Shares experiences from Autistic people about what to expect Has tools to try when things are difficult Gives scripts for when it’s hard to know what to say Reinforces the important bits in summaries Has top tips from Autistic midwives Has a birth plan template

Topics include: Pregnancy Sensory experiences Staying healthy in pregnancy Appointments and information Pregnancy complications & pregnancy loss Birth Where to give birth Giving birth & pain relief What happens after you give birth When baby has arrived Baby’s care, sleep & feeding Your emotions

The Autism friendly guide to pregnancy, birth and the fourth trimester is published today!

Below you can see some information about the book (1 of 2)

There's a 20% discount code if you buy from Jessica Kingsley Publishers - %AGRANT20

Weird some scicomm accounts gave the new “Tylenol in pregnancy & autism” review some weight.

They don’t know the lead author, Baccarelli, had the exact claims thrown out of federal court for having ZERO scientific merit,

when he was a paid “expert witness” in lawsuits against Tylenol makers.

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🤰Did you miss ARCAP's webinar on inclusive perinatal care for Autistic parents? Researchers & a parent shared insights from research studies, key gaps in practice & our new Autistic pregnancy & parenthood hub. The recording is now available on demand: www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwqP...
#AutismResearch

Thousands of Victorians with disabilities face losing their homes The state’s disability accommodation program is in danger of collapsing, endangering the group homes caring for many of the state’s most vulnerable residents.

www.theage.com.au/national/vic...

These are the quality not-for-profit services that used to exist before the NDIS. Now private providers make millions whilst these services are allowed to fold and those with complex needs become homeless.
Devastating.

Excellent article. The NDIS is largely just a brokerage system to the private sector. It was set up with virtually no regulation. So the private sector did what it has always done - make money and keep on increasing charges to make more.
People with disability were taken for a ride then blamed.

How many autistic people have we found, so far? Just about none in the older age groups. Much needed new research from this top duo.
kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/ws/portalfil...

Autistic People's Experiences With Mental Health Services: Intersectionality Matters - Dawn Adams, Stephanie Malone, Wenn Lawson, Jayden Breasley, Sonya Girdler, Annette Carroll, 2025 Autistic people experience elevated rates of mental health conditions compared to non-autistic people; however, significant barriers to services are encountered...

📰 New #openaccess autism research

"Many people suggested that mental health professionals need more training about autism, and that better funding is needed to help Autistic people access appropriate support."

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is a difficulty with understanding & using words & sentences.
That might seem like a small issue to you, but to people with DLD this can be a huge barrier. The biggest barrier of all is NEXT TO NO ONE HAS HEARD OF DLD.
Help us change that!
#DLDday
#DevLangDis

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Neurodiversity is more than slogans. Discover the difference between real neurodiversity-affirming practice & “neurodiversity-lite.”

https://autisticrealms.com/authentic-neurodiversity-affirming-practice-matters/?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=jetpack_social

Autistic Menopause & Perimenopause Resources | Autistic Realms A signposting resource to support Autistic people experiencing menopause/ perimenopause. What else would you recommend?Any other research/books/ blogs / You ...

I have collated a list of research/ resources here about Autistic experiences and menopause/ perimenopause that may be of interest too

autisticrealms.com/autistic-men...

Experiences of and treatment preferences for insomnia in autistic adults: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis | ESRS The study led by Dr. Gardani explored the experiences and treatment preferences for insomnia among autistic* adults, employing qualitative methodology to get

“It Doesn’t Really Work for Me”: Participants reported that standard sleep interventions often feel ineffective, reporting that conventional advice or CBT-I may lack relevance to autistic needs

Mmm yep that checks out #AutRes

Auditory and Semantic Processing of Speech-in-Noise in Autism: A Behavioral and EEG Study - PubMed Autistic individuals often struggle to recognize speech in noisy environments, but the neural mechanisms behind these challenges remain unclear. Effective speech-in-noise (SiN) processing relies on au...

Today in research backing up autistic common knowledge: Yes, it is a LOT harder for autistic people to process conversations and other audio streams, if there are competing noises in the area.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40755170/ #autism #autistic #neurodiversity

“There is Nowhere Else That I’d Rather be Than with Them”: Parents’ Positive Experiences Parenting Autistic Children - Melanie Heyworth, Catherine McMahon, Diana Weiting Tan, Elizabeth Pellicano, 2025 Background and Aims A significant body of research focuses on the negative outcomes of parenting Autistic children, particularly when parents identify as non-Au...

A very important counter-balance to a lot of other research that is conducted on parenting experiences.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Pandemic Revisionism, Part One: COVID-19 Origins Because people keep getting this very wrong.

How did the pandemic start?

I have avoided publicly commenting on this for 5 years. Here's my take as someone who has no stake at all in the game.

gidmk.substack.com/p/pandemic-r...

Exclusive: NDIA chief intervened to throw advocate off scheme Internal emails show the National Disability Insurance Agency rushed to withdraw access for a disabled person whose funding was criticised on talkback radio, only to reinstate it 10 months later.

Try not to overdo comparisons to robodebt. But this is closest I've seen to a post-robodebt copy of the playbook. NDIS boss demands participant be booted from scheme after conservative radio segment. No evidence. Sham process. Against policy. Gets it WRONG www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/health/...

Launch of the Aspect Autistic Pregnancy and Parenthood Hub, June 2025

Autistic Pregnancy and Parenthood Hub project team

Panellists at the Aspect Autistic Pregnancy and Parenthood Hub launch

CEO of Aspect, Jacqui Borland with attendees to the Aspect Autistic Pregnancy and Parenthood Hub launch

🎉This week we launched the Aspect Autistic Pregnancy and Parenthood Hub, a first-of-its-kind online resource co-designed to support Autistic parents & help healthcare professionals provide inclusive, neuroaffirming care.
🔗www.aspect.org.au/new-parents
#Autism #PerinatalCare #Research

The Nazis called this Nacht und Nebel, “Night and Fog.” It was adopted as a deliberate, conscious policy in late 1941 to terrorise occupied populations.

An Evaluation of a Whole-School Trauma-Informed Professional Development for Staff in Autism-Specific Educational Settings - School Mental Health This research explored ways in which educators within an autism-specific multi-school education provider in Australia first learned about, and then reflected upon, the relevance of trauma-informed edu...

⚡ Autistic students face higher trauma risks. @aspectaus.bsky.social & Berry Street worked together to bring trauma-informed practices to 9 autism-specific schools. Results? Better trauma literacy, staff attitudes & engagement. Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1... #TraumaInformedEducation

🌺🌼 = 🤧😭

Peter Graves form the Mission Impossible TV series once asked me where to find the milk in a supermarket aisle in Melbourne.

While the media drone on about how hard it is for people with most than $3 million in super to lose some of their tax breaks, in reality the vast majority of Australians have less than $200k in super. The median for a 60 year old woman is just $158k, which means half of women have less than that!

Love this.
“Boundaries” is one of the most over used and misused words in psychiatry.
People think if they say “no” to someone and the person has to accept that unquestionably, then they are giving “boundaries”.
Urgh.

The blog is a little misleading. It implies that they broadened the definition of Intellectual disability which the authors didn’t.

Cast no shadow: how common are psychiatric conditions among people with intellectual disability? buff.ly/7RXgE8l

🧵 THREAD

#MentalHealth #Prevalence #IntellectualDisabilities #DiagnosticOvershadowing #Psychiatry #Australia

Nationals demand the 'coal' half of the 'Coalition'

"The Liberals can have the 'ition' half."

Read more: chaser.com.au/national/nat...

Just out! Our peer-reviewed critique of the Cass Review has been published by BMC Medical Research Methodology. Please read and share. We show that the Cass Review is fatally flawed and should not be the basis for policy or practice in transgender healthcare.

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Paper published: first output from our Wellcome Trust Mental Health Award, AMBER, on how UK Biobank participants report on whether antidepressants helped their depression.

tl;dr 75% said SSRI antidepressants helped them feel better

➡️ Paper in Psychological Medicine
bit.ly/4ifjcWC

🧵

Lots of competing obligations today. Democracy sausage likes too long at multiple polling places.
Missed out.
Boo hiss.

Dr. Anthony Fauci urges Americans not to accept "Normalization of Untruths".

Talking with Dr. Meng-Chuan Lai About Autism and Mental Health — THINKING PERSON'S GUIDE TO AUTISM We talked with Dr. Meng-Chuan Lai about the overlap of mental health & autism, & the evidence-backed tendency of autistic people to be LGBT.

Fascinating and #INSAR2025-relevant: We talked with Dr. Meng-Chuan Lai @mengchuanlai.bsky.social about the the overlap of mental health and autism, the evidence-backed tendency of autistic people to be LGBT+, and much more. New at TPGA:

thinkingautismguide.com/2025/04/talk... #neurodiversity