Tessa Prebble

Contributing writer

Tessa Prebble is the writer/producer/creator behind The One in a Million Baby podcast, which focuses on families living with special and medically fragile kids.

Parents
Mar 26, 2018

Disability is not a dirty word: Moving away from 'special needs'

When it comes to minority groups, getting the words right is important. Tessa Prebble explores the popular term “special needs” when it comes to being a parent of a child with disabilities, and asks whether in using that term we are doing our children a disservice.

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Parents
Jun 12, 2017

Ableism is everywhere. Parents of children with disabilities are challenging it, are you?

Spinoff Parents columnist and advocate for children with disabilities Tessa Prebble writes about ableism and the need for the able-bodied community to stop ignoring it or excusing it.

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Parents
May 10, 2017

What Mother's Day feels like when you're a mother without her baby

Mother's Day is a time for sleep-ins and massages and home-made cards for a lot of parents. But for one group of parents it's an especially painful time. Tessa Prebble writes about being a mother on Mother's Day when your child has died.

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Parents
Apr 13, 2017

‘Special needs’ or basic human needs? On #NotSpecialNeeds and ableist language

Should we stop using the term "special needs"? Spinoff Parents columnist and advocate for children with disabilities Tessa Prebble looks at a new campaign to retire the phrase, launched to mark World Down Syndrome Day .

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Parents
Jan 25, 2017

Living on the other side of ‘As long as it’s healthy’

Without the lived experience of having a child with health complications you can never truly know what it's like. One who knows is Tessa Prebble, who shares how it feels to hear the words 'as long as it's healthy' now.

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Parents
Nov 9, 2016

Am I a parent when I’ve lost my child? Am I still a mother?

We have a word for children who have lost their parents, but no equivalent for parents who have faced the agony of losing a child. Tessa Prebble writes about the limbo of being a mother with no child to parent, 18 months after the death of her daughter Eva.

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Parents
Oct 11, 2016

Are we sleepwalking into a world without Down Syndrome?

Many parents make the reasonable decision to terminate their pregnancy following an in utero diagnosis of Down Syndrome. But as more sophisticated tests make it easier and less risky to diagnose early, Tessa Prebble wonders whether we've really thought through the consequences.

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Parents
Oct 6, 2016

The parents suing doctors over a health condition deserve sympathy, not judgement

For Tessa Prebble, whose own daughter was born with congenital issues, the story of Aria and her parents evokes only sadness – and anger at a system that let a struggling family down.

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