Letter to the sentencing council on pregnant women (23 September 2022)

Summary

An open letter to Brandon Lewis, the justice secretary, and the Sentencing Council for England and Wales warns that pregnant women in jail suffer severe stress and highlights evidence suggesting they are more likely to have a stillbirth. The signatories include the Royal College of Midwives and Liberty.

Content

The letter cites examples of recent tragedies where women have given birth in prisons.

On the 22 September 2019, an 18-year-old woman remanded in HMP Bronzefield gave birth in her cell alone. Despite requesting help she did not receive any medical assistance. After giving birth alone, she bit through the umbilical cord to free her baby. She was found in her cell the following morning; paramedics called to the scene were unable to resuscitate the child.

In June 2020, a pregnant woman in HMP Styal, Louise Powell, also gave birth without medical assistance, to a baby named Brooke that died. These two preventable baby deaths should have been the catalyst for real change in the sentencing and remand of pregnant women, yet the latest data from the Ministry of Justice shows that little has changed. In the past year alone, and in the wake of the deaths of Baby A and Baby Brooke, 50 births took place in prisons, on the average week 29 pregnant women were held in prison, and 40 babies have been held in prison with their mothers. The data also shows that birth outcomes are worse than previously reported.

Facts on pregnancy in UK prisons:

• Pregnant women in prison are five times more likely to suffer a stillbirth than women in the community.
• Pregnant women in prison are almost twice as likely to give birth prematurely as women in the general population, which puts both the mothers and their babies at risk. One in ten pregnant women in prison give birth in-cell or on the way to hospital.
• At least two babies have died in women’s prisons in the past three years.