Being a girl or woman with autism is hard: it’s only in the past two to three years that many professionals have begun to recognise that the condition is not limited to boys and men. But what’s harder is to be a mother with autism – and harder than that, is to be a mother with autism, of children with autism.

Experts say that there is a hidden pool of mothers who have grown up with undiagnosed autism. These women often only recognize their own condition when researching their children’s symptoms.