Improving maternity provision for incarcerated women in the UK
BMJ 2025; 388 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2024-080445 (Published 15 January 2025) Cite this as: BMJ 2025;388:e080445
- Laura Abbott, associate professor1,
- Kirsty Kitchen, head of policy2,
- Tanya Capper, associate professor33,
- Miranda Davies, senior fellow4,
- Lucy Baldwin, research fellow5
- 1University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UK
- 2Birth Companions, London, UK
- 3Australian Catholic University, Queensland, Australia
- 4Nuffield Trust, London, UK
- 5Durham University, Durham, UK
- Correspondence to: L Abbott l.abbott{at}herts.ac.uk
Two newborn babies died in UK prisons in 2019-20 and another died in transit to hospital in 2017.12 The unique challenges faced by women in detained settings were highlighted in the Corston report in 2007,3 but these deaths drew widespread attention to the serious shortcomings and substandard care for perinatal women in prison.4 The systemic problems need tackling urgently to protect the health of pregnant women, new mothers, and babies while in criminal justice settings.
Women constitute about 4% of the overall prison population in England and Wales and tend to receive shorter sentences than men, usually for non-violent crimes.3 The decision to incarcerate pregnant women is a political one, with 11 countries, including Spain, Mexico, and Italy, prohibiting or severely limiting it. Research on care of pregnant women in prison in the UK is sparse, despite evident similarities in the underuse of mother and baby placements in prisons across the world.5
Risks of imprisonment
Pregnant women in prison face heightened risks of complications such as preterm birth, and hypertension, while also grappling with complex issues such as trauma, substance abuse, anxiety, and depression.6 A pregnant woman in prison is seven times more likely to experience a stillbirth than a woman who is not incarcerated.7 Analysis of hospital data found that in 2017-18, 1 in 10 births among imprisoned women in England took place outside of hospital and over one in five pregnant women in prison missed midwifery appointments.8 Furthermore, incarcerated perinatal women are at greater risk than the general population of mental health difficulties.9 This was highlighted by the suicide of Michelle Barnes in 2015, five days after she learnt …
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