The UK scandal of women handcuffed while in labour: ‘I was so shocked when the restraints weren’t removed’

Joanna was a model prisoner who followed the rules. She had been convicted for a non-violent drugs offence and was not deemed to be at high risk of escape, particularly not in the throes of an agonising labour. She hoped to use hypnobirthing, breathing and relaxation techniques to make the birth calmer and more comfortable. Thanks to information provided by the charity Birth Companions she knew it was her right not to be handcuffed during labour. She had highlighted the handcuffing points in the booklet.

When Joanna went into labour on 30 December 2022, she was taken to hospital, handcuffed and chained to a prison officer. She remained so for the 36 hours of a long, difficult birth. Any thoughts of hypnobirthing went out of the window. “I was crying so much that my nose was too blocked to use any of the breathing techniques,” Joanna says. “I’m the kind of person who is good at researching my rights. So many people had told me during my pregnancy that I wouldn’t have to give birth in handcuffs. I was taken to hospital chained to an officer with handcuffs but assumed they would be removed at the entrance to the hospital.

“I was so shocked when the cuffs weren’t removed. When I told the prison guards who had brought me to hospital about what the Birth Companions booklet said, they replied: ‘We don’t know what that book is, we’re not going to abide by it.’ I felt so scared. It was my first baby, I didn’t know what to expect from birth and I wasn’t a risk to anyone.”

Joanna gave an anonymous interview to Channel 4 News in 2025 about her ordeal. The prisons minister, Lord Timpson, subsequently announced last June that an independent investigation would be commissioned and carried out by the prisons and probation ombudsman (PPO) into the practice in England of handcuffing pregnant prisoners during antenatal appointments, intimate examinations and labour. Timpson said reports of pregnant women being handcuffed during labour were “deeply concerning”. However, information on the number of prisoners handcuffed during labour and birth is not routinely collected by officials.

The Royal College of Midwives and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists have called for an investigation into the use of restraints on pregnant prisoners.

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Source: The Guardian, 4 March 2026