Dot was devastated when her, apparently happy, 15 year old daughter told her that she was cutting herself. Dot thinks that her daughter was helped by counselling. She herself was helped by getting information about self-harm from experts that she worked with at the time.

Alexiss daughter is now 22 and started self-harming at the age of 11. She hasn't self-harmed in the last two years. Alexis says nothing can prepare you for the sadness, loneliness, fear and lack of support that you go through as a parent when your child is self-harming.

We both just wanted to be normal parents’: a qualitative study of the experience of maternity care for women with learning disability. Malouf, R., […]