For over two decades, Anna has focused on supporting mothers who use drugs through both professional and often deemed high risk underground peer-led approaches. Recognising the lack of services for this marginalised group, she eventually founded the HR M2M (Harm Reduction Mother-to-Mother) network in her local community. The initiative provides essential harm reduction supplies including injecting and smoking equipment, specifically for mothers who avoid traditional services due to fear of child removal and institutional bias. These mothers face compounded stigma, often rooted in generational trauma and systemic neglect. Anna’s model challenges these systemic failures by creating non-judgmental engagement regularly that recognise motherhood and drug use not as mutually exclusive identities but as interconnected realities deserving of compassion and support.

Abstract

Breaking barriers: The role of Harm Reduction Mother 2 Mother in supporting mothers who use drugs

This case study presents the work of the presenter, Anna Millington, a self-described user, mother, and criminal, who founded HARM Reduction Mother 2 Mother (HR M2M) to address the neglected needs of mothers who use drugs. It highlights how HR M2M challenges stigma, provides tailored harm reduction resources, improves access to women-specific injecting equipment for this underserved group, challenging abstinence-based narratives. This presentation uses a case study approach to describe the HR M2M project. Anna’s grassroots activism and partnership with Exchange Supplies are described. Drawing on organisational reports, campaign materials, and interviews with Anna and collaborators, the presentation highlights the development of anti-stigma training, harm reduction gift kits, and the redesign of injecting equipment to meet women’s specific needs. Many of the women who engage with HR M2M are vulnerable to exploitation and blackmail in a way rarely seen in other drug-using populations. This emphasises the importance of Anna’s peer-led, underground needles and syringe distribution system. HR M2M’s challenges apparently gender-neutral needle and syringe distribution by developing women-specific equipment in partnership with Exchange Supplies. HR M2M’s anti-stigma campaign has gained international recognition. After nearly two years of collaboration between HR M2M, Exchange Supplies, HIT, and Release, efforts to challenge the dominance of abstinence-based narratives have helped bring harm reduction for women back to the centre of UK drug policy conversations. This case study demonstrates the vital role of user-led, gender-specific harm reduction initiatives in overcoming service neglect and promoting dignity and safety for mothers who use drugs.