Disabled mother who can't use her arms or legs reveals how she copes with two young children

Disabled mother who can't use her arms or legs reveals how she copes with two young children

• Trish, 26, has a rare condition called arthrogryposis 
• Because she can't use her limbs, she has to do everything with teeth
• Her story features in BBC3 documentary, A Special Kind of Mum
• Programme also features Michelle, who has dwarfism
• At two, Michelle's son Treziah is almost as tall and strong as his mother
  

By Ruth Styles

PUBLISHED: 09:23 EST, 26 March 2013 | UPDATED: 14:03 EST, 26 March 2013

With little sleep, sore nipples and serious lifestyle adjustments to make, being a new mother is tough, no matter who you are.

So spare a thought for Trish, 25, who has had to cope with the upheaval all without being able to use her arms or legs.

Despite the challenges she faces, Trish, who suffers from a rare condition called arthrogryposis, is determined to prove the critics who thought she wouldn't be able to cope wrong. 

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Brave: Trish (centre) with husband Pete, daughter Jessica (left), son PJ and her newborn baby

I'm a disabled mum whose arms don't work, whose legs don't work. Everybody assumed I wouldn't be able to manage,' reveals Trish. 'You learn to cope in different ways.'

'From being a baby, everything went in my mouth,' she adds. 'It might be hard, you might have to try loads of different ways round it but there is a way of doing absolutely everything.'

For Trish, who lives in South Shields with husband Pete, 33 and children Jessica, four, and PJ, two, this means doing everything from preparing breakfast to changing a nappy using her teeth.

The amount of times I've tasted poo,' she grimaces. It's so much easier to do a newborn's nappy because they can't move - they can't run off from you!' 

Retail therapy: Trish takes PJ and Jessica for a trip to the shops using her mobility scooter

Impressive: Trish can even change a nappy using her teeth, and confesses she has tasted poo more than once

Also defying the doubters is 26-year-old single mum, Michelle, who has pseudoachondroplasia - the rarest form of dwarfism.

Just 3ft 6in tall, Michelle's two-year-old son Treziah is almost as big and strong as she is, which means she's forced to hold on to him using reins when they go out.

Despite the difficulties, Michelle is just as determined as Trish to make motherhood work in spite of her disabilities.

'You find ways round everything,' adds Trish, who has just had a third child. 'It's problem solving. I find it [motherhood] harder but it's rewarding. It's more rewarding than it is challenging.

'I can do more for the children than I can do for myself.'

See more in A Special Kind of Mum, tonight at 9pm on BBC3 

Difficult: Michelle's two-year-old son Treziah is almost as tall as she is, making him hard to control

Work: Because Michelle has a rare form of dwarfism, little Treziah is nearly as strong as she is

Coping: Trish has had to find ways to do absolutely everything using her teeth, including brushing the children's

Breakfast: According to Trish, she finds it easier to do things for her children than for herself