The Spinal Muscular Atrophy Podcast with Kevin Schaefer · SMA News Today

#155: Jasmine Jackson, digital creator and mother with SMA

·40 min·2 clips

Kevin Schaefer welcomes Jasmine Jackson. He has known her through conferences and mutual friends, so the conversation begins from familiar ground before turning to her life as a development and marketing manager, digital creator, and mother with SMA Type 2. Jasmine was born in North Carolina, and her family later moved to the Vancouver, Washington area to be closer to relatives. She says her mother started noticing around age two or three that she was not walking the way she should, and after the move they connected with MDA and received a diagnosis when she was four. She still remembers the biopsy. That memory sits near the start of the episode and gives the rest of the conversation a lived-in feel. Motherhood shifts the tone. Jasmine talks honestly about the doubt she faced from family and other people who did not think she was capable of having a child, and she describes how having to prove herself for a while took a real toll. It also sharpened her advocacy. Kevin lets her stay with that feeling instead of moving past it, and the two of them talk through how that pressure eventually pushed her back toward community. Online, Jasmine found other moms with SMA. That was a major shift, because she had not previously met a disabled mother and had spent years without the kind of support she wished she had known earlier. She mentions one woman from camp who had children. Jasmine looked up to her, reached out with questions, and later met her first parent with SMA in person at a conference. From there, the discussion keeps returning to the value of connection, especially when everyday life is shaped by other people's assumptions. Jasmine and Kevin also touch on how ignorance can show up even among longtime friends. The episode stays close to the practical and emotional realities of being a parent who has to adapt on a whole new level.

As heard by us

A calm, intimate look at SMA, motherhood, and the support that helped make both possible.

Jasmine Jackson's conversation with Kevin Schaefer is a measured account of living with SMA Type 2, motherhood, and the support that makes both possible.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

If you want a grounded disabled-parenting story, this is the one to press play on.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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