Pregnant in prison: ‘I thought my baby had died but was treated like an inconvenience’
Lying on the thin mattress of a single twin bed, Suzy*, couldn’t escape the excruciating pain that had engulfed her body.
Not knowing if she or her unborn baby were okay, all the 35-year-old could do was cry herself to sleep.
It was only days before that Suzy had discovered she was pregnant – a huge shock for the mum-of-one. Having been placed in prison to await trial for a crime she was later found innocent of, a routine medical check-up revealed her condition.
There were more than 200 pregnant women in prison across England and Wales last year – a number which had increased by over a third (36%) as of 2024. One in three were held on remand, despite not yet being found guilty of any crime.
According to data from the Ministry of Justice, women in these conditions are seven times more likely to suffer stillbirth and twice as likely to give birth prematurely. However, seeking appropriate medical treatment behind bars can be difficult, as Suzy discovered.
When she woke up one day in excruciating pain, fearing for her unborn child’s life – she says had to beg for medical help.
‘That’s when I realised this wasn’t a safe place to be,’ Suzy tells Metro.
After letting prison officers know she wasn’t feeling well, they debated what to do before eventually deciding to take her to the hospital.
What shocked Suzy was that officers weren’t making decisions ‘based on her needs’, she recalls, but rather the availability of the staff.
‘To go to A&E, you need two officers to be present with you, which meant they had to find officers who would agree to go,’ she explains.
‘When they did finally collect me, we went through the same security process of getting checked, patted down, handcuffed – all while I was in unbearable pain.
‘As we got into the van, I could hear the officers muttering to each other how annoyed they were because it meant that they wouldn’t be able to go home on time and they didn’t really wish to stay any longer.’
Getting help
To make matters worse, it was only after waiting in A&E for treatment for several hours, without knowing if her baby was okay, that the doctor finally told Suzy and the officers there was no early pregnancy unit at the hospital. As her situation wasn’t deemed an emergency, she would have to wait to see someone the following week when a nearby unit was open.
Defeated, Suzy was taken back to the car by the two officers. On the journey home, one of them said ‘Maybe it’s for the best.’ She broke down in tears.
‘I was devastated. I didn’t even know what was wrong with me or my baby, yet I was being told that it was probably better that I wasn’t pregnant at all,’ remembers Suzy. ‘When I got back to my room, I just laid down and cried myself to sleep. I was so distressed, I couldn’t get out of bed. I thought I lost my baby.’
Thankfully, her baby was okay and eventually, she received the treatment she needed. However, she was only allowed home six months later – by then heavily pregnant – after finally being found not guilty of her crime.
Following her release, Suzy gave birth to a healthy baby via c-section and has since channelled her efforts to help others like her.
‘You just lose so much in prison,’ she says. ‘It affects your children on the outside and disrupts entire families.’
A deadly situation
Not every pregnant woman behind bars is as lucky as Suzy. In September 2021, Rianna Cleary, a teenager who pleaded guilty to robbery after she was exploited by gangs, was held on remand in HMP Bronzefield. She too found she was pregnant after the entry medical exams.
Her baby Aisha was born in the early hours of September 27, 2019 after two calls to prison staff from her mum went unanswered. A prison officer also walked past her cell with a torch when she was on her hands and knees in labour but did not stop and help.
Rianna made two panicked calls to prison staff asking for a nurse and ambulance, but none arrived. When she woke up, she had to cut its umbilical cord with her teeth.
Her baby daughter was pronounced dead later that morning after suffering brain injuries, an inquest heard.
Although the NHS deems all pregnancies in prison as ‘high risk’, questions are being raised about why mums-to-be – almost 72% of whom were remanded and later found not guilty – are still being put into perilous conditions.
Suzy now works with Level Up, a campaign group that fights for gender justice in the UK, and says the dangers facing incarcerated mothers and babies show that the prison systems cannot provide a safe place for them.
‘Officers decide whether you go to the hospital or not, and they’re not medically trained. In some cases, officers have assisted in births, which is illegal,’ she claims.
‘My prisoner governor told me she could not justify spending her budget on a full-time midwife. There are so many levels they’re failing at.’
In 2022, 30-year-old Louise Powell gave birth prematurely to a stillborn baby in a prison toilet in HMP Styal, Cheshire. She didn’t realise she was pregnant, while staff assumed she was experiencing ‘period pains’.
Looking for solutions
The incident was blasted as a ‘serious error of judgment’ and sparked further conversations surrounding the way pregnant women on remand are treated. MP Apsana Begum tabled a parliamentary question on the issue, and declared that ‘detaining pregnant women in prison before they have even been tried in the courts flies in the face of the principle ‘innocent until proven guilty’.’
Last year, the government also worked to reduce the number of pregnant women sentenced to custody by introducing a new ‘mitigating factor’, which allows judges to consider alternatives to placing women and new mums in prison, including supervised community service.
However, this does not apply to court procedures for the third of pregnant women on remand – only those who have been sentenced for a crime.
What has the MOJ and Chair of Justice Committee said?
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: ‘The Lord Chancellor has launched the Women’s Justice Board so that fewer women end up in prison, particularly those who are pregnant or mothers.
‘Custody should always be a last resort for women, and we have specialist pregnancy, mother and baby liaison officers in every women’s prison to ensure they are signposted to support services.’
Chair of the Justice Committee Andy Slaughter MP said: ‘These statistics are concerning. The predecessor Justice Committee warned in its report on Women in Prison back in 2022 that limited progress had been made in developing alternatives to custodial sentences for women.
‘It also called for a renewed focus on the specific challenges facing women who enter the prison system, including the impact it has on women who are primary carers and what more can be done to ensure vital family relationships are maintained.
‘The Committee’s 2023 report on the role of adult custodial remand, cautioned the criminal justice system was ill-equipped to deal with ever-rising numbers of remand prisoners. It also called for greater use of community alternatives to custodial remand, particularly for non-violent offences and improved support for those subject to custodial remand.
‘The Justice Committee is currently undertaking an inquiry into rehabilitation and resettlement: breaking the cycle of reoffending and in its first evidence session earlier this month heard worrying evidence of the many challenges female prisoners face in accessing their most basic needs.
‘The Committee will be closely watching the work of the Women’s Justice Board in aiming to reduce the number of women in custody.’
In another bid to address the issue, the government is currently sponsoring an Independent Sentencing Review to look into sentences for crimes across England and Wales. It’s being led by Former Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary, the Rt Hon David Gauke, and an expert panel.
However, Suzy is not impressed by such pledges. ‘I don’t feel like we’re the priority – prison is not a safe place for pregnant women to be,’ she says.
‘The prisons have had enough time to make necessary changes and there has been a multitude of egregious acts, dangerous births and deaths.’
Mel Evans, co-founder of No Births Behind Bars, also believes more needs to be done. ‘Prison cannot be made safe for pregnant women and babies. It is not enough for this government to put a sticking plaster on the problem with new roles for prison officers,’ she tells Metro.
‘If we are to prevent any more baby deaths in custody, we need new legislation to keep pregnant women and new mothers in the community.’
Following the tragedy at Styal Prison in Cheshire, the facility has since introduced a new mum and baby unit that has been praised as ‘better’ than some outside NHS care offered.
In a recent visit to the unit, the Princess of Wales said it was ‘fantastic’, telling staff: ‘It is great that you are looking at the mother’s wellbeing as well. The best thing for a baby is to have a mother whose emotional needs and wellbeing are met as well.’
For Level Up’s Co-director Janey Starling mother and baby units like these are not the answer. ‘Prison will never be a safe place to be pregnant,’ she tells Metro.
‘The only way to keep women and babies safe is for the government to divert funding from prisons and into specialist community-based women’s centres where a woman can get the proper support she needs to address the issues that swept her up into crime in the first place, which are very often debt, mental illness and domestic abuse.
‘Women’s centres work. In her community, a woman can get the support she needs to give her child the best start in life. Prison will never ever be the best start in a child’s life.’
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