Victoria Bodean, the mother with cerebral palsy showing the world how to overcome disability barriers

For many women, not having children is a form of emancipation. Ultimately, that emancipation lies in the ability to choose, a choice made possible by material circumstances, physical factors and access to education and opportunity. Victoria Bodean’s cerebral palsy has not prevented her from exercising that freedom of choice. Much to the surprise of those around her, the 27-year-old English teacher has become the mother of a baby girl, a victory in every sense of the word.

The Moldovan woman now hopes to build a career as a content creator, showing the world what it is really like to live with a disability. “My town, Străşeni, was in shock. They were curious that a person with a disability could get pregnant. They wondered how I was going to raise my daughter,” she says in Madrid, during a visit with her sister for an event organized by UNICEF and EL PAÍS. “I am still a human being, and reduced mobility did not limit my desire to be the mother of a healthy baby.”

After her daughter was born, she separated from the child’s father and is raising her with the support of her family in the same house where she grew up, in Moldova. Bodean first spoke to EL PAÍS 17 years ago as part of the feature Children of the World. Back then, she was 10 years old and said her greatest wish was to have a giant doll. Today, she is just as independent as she was as a child, and only asks for assistance when it is absolutely necessary.

She walks with a frame and can climb stairs with minimal help. Bodean entered the world after a complicated delivery in which doctors prioritized saving her mother’s life and induced the birth, believing the baby would survive only a few days. She proved them wrong. And although she began to speak and her intellectual development progressed, some of her basic motor skills were delayed. She couldn’t sit up, hold her head up, or chew.

Throughout her life, she has undergone multiple surgeries and learned to live with pain. Since being diagnosed with cerebral palsy at the age of two, Bodean’s parents have adapted their lives to help her live as normally as possible. Her mother learned massage techniques, while her father redesigned the family home. At five, she underwent her first laser surgery, a procedure that proved crucial in helping her chew food, improve her vision and transition from walking on her toes to placing her whole foot on the ground.

“They operated on every muscle in my body. Moving was very painful after that. And I remember every kind of pain I went through. But I don’t focus on it,” she says. Still, even after so many surgeries, there are problems she has learned to live with: “If I had too much saliva in my mouth, I would panic. It still happens, but I’ve learned to control it.” In Moldova, one of the poorest countries in Europe, educational institutions are not prepared to accommodate people with reduced mobility.

At eight, Bodean attended school for a week. She could not continue because her only concern was getting from one place to another as quickly as possible. She wasn’t discriminated against, but she felt like a burden to her classmates, who accompanied and helped her. “It was horrible. I told my mother, ‘This is too much.’ But then I went to the United States on my own, and I forgot I had a disability.” After spending her childhood and teenage years studying remotely, she learned about a scholarship program that allowed students to spend a year in the United States.

Unsure whether to apply, she did so anyway, won a place and moved to Pennsylvania at 16. “The country is so accessible that you forget you are different. There are ramps everywhere, and they’re practical, something that doesn’t happen in other places. Doors are automatic and the subway is accessible. If I couldn’t take notes in class, I could use a recorder. They gave me simple solutions to everyday problems. It was a different experience from what I had experienced before.”

On returning from the United States, Bodean studied special education and began teaching English to children, which is what she does today. As the social model of disability argues, exclusion is caused by social barriers — such as education and urban design — not by physical and functional differences. For Bodean, having a job and raising a daughter are both ways of challenging those barriers. Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition