Mothers who are at risk of losing custody of their children represent a vulnerable and stigmatised population, whose voices are seldom heard. Exploring their perspectives of parenting, their child and the relationship with their child – their ‘parenting representations’ – can improve our understandings of their struggles and inform interventions seeking to interrupt cycles of transgenerational trauma. Research in this area so far has been predominantly quantitative, meaning valuable information about subjective experiences is often lost. The present study sought to address this gap by thematically analysing interviews with eight mothers with under-3-year-olds on the edge of Local Authority care, completed at the beginning of a specialist therapeutic intervention. Results are reported around five themes: ‘Idealistic portrayal of the child and relationship’, ‘Struggling as a parent’, ‘Shadows of the past’, ‘The child and motherhood as comfort’ and ‘Anxiety about loss and fighting for the child’. The parenting struggles of mothers in this population are complex and multi-faceted, fuelled by ongoing relational trauma, fears of further pain, adversity, and difficulties in accessing and trusting support. Successful interventions are likely to require comprehensive, long-term approaches which holistically address mothers’ unmet physical and emotional needs, and begin with building relational trust
