Abstract
It is thought that approximately 400–600 women at various stages of pregnancy are incarcerated each year and around 100 babies are born to women in prison every year. Pregnant women may have complex physical and mental health needs which require expert, individualised care. My qualitative research looked at the experience of being a pregnant woman in the English prison system (Abbott, The incarcerated pregnancy: An ethnographic study of perinatal women in English prisons. University of Hertfordshire, 2018). Through interviews with pregnant women, staff and extensive time in the field observing prison life, analysis has uncovered common themes such as: stigma, survival and resilience. Some women went to some lengths to navigate the masculine system of prison in order to access resources (food and exercise) by being a “role model prisoner” and finding strategies of resistance. Women have to navigate the prison system in order to access resources such as: the right kinds of nutrition and ways to avoid stress. They may find strategies of resistance and resilience in order to survive and for some women, being in prison helps to facilitate change. Some women have reported finding that being in prison was the thing that enforced this resistance, tenacity and capacity for change, if a woman gains the right kind of support. The focus of the chapter concentrates on some of the findings of the current research, specifically: equivalence of health care; nutritional well-being; basic provisions (or lack of); changes in identity, and compassion and support for pregnant women in prison and embeds anonymised quotes from research participants to highlight their experiences. The chapter also describes how prison can be a safe haven for some women and introduces the concept of pregnancy itself being a unique ‘turning point’ for desistance and health.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
A mother and baby unit places women who have successfully applied for a place, with their babies up to 18 months of age.
- 2.
Category A prisoners are deemed the most dangerous prisoners who require the strictest security conditions. Restricted status is any woman on remand or sentenced who poses a serious risk to public safety. Closed conditions are for women who are too substantial a risk for open conditions although requiring less security. Open conditions are for women who can be trusted and are a minimal risk to the public. (PSI 39/2011)
- 3.
A closed prison is maximum security holding category A, restricted status, closed conditions and remand prisoners.
- 4.
An open prison is a minimum-security prison where women can undertake outside work and are trusted with minimal supervision.
- 5.
A Prison Service Order (PSO) or Prison Service Instruction (PSI) is guidance on how prison services are regulated.
- 6.
‘On the outside’ is a phrase used to describe being away from or not inside an institution such as a prison.
- 7.
The current spend on food per prisoner per day in England is £2.02 (MoJ, 2015, Freedom of Information request from Prison Reform Trust).
- 8.
Gaviscon is a liquid medication available to buy over the counter for the relief of heartburn.
- 9.
Anti-hypertensive medication reduces blood pressure.
- 10.
Pre-eclampsia is a serious pregnancy complication characterised by high blood pressure and fluid retention which, if untreated, can lead to eclamptic fits and cerebral vascular accident (stroke).
- 11.
ACCT (Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork) is a series of documents opened in response to concern that a prisoner is at risk of self-harm or suicide.
- 12.
Lactation is the secretion of milk from the breasts.
- 13.
Desistance is the termination of offending behaviour (Maruna et al. 2012).
References
Abbott, L. (2015). A pregnant pause: Expecting in the prison estate. In L. Baldwin (Ed.), Mothering justice: Working with mothers in criminal and social justice settings (1st ed.). England: Waterside Press.
Abbott, L., & Scott, T. (2020). Women’s experiences of breastfeeding in prison. MIDIRS Midwifery Digest, 27(2).
Albertson, K., O’Keefe, C., Burke, C., Lessing-Turner, G., & Renfrew, M. (2014). Addressing health inequalities for mothers and babies in prison. Health and Inequality: Applying Public Health Research to Policy and Practice, 39.
Baldwin, L., & Epstein, R. (2017). Short but not sweet: A study of the imposition of short custodial sentences on women, and in particular, on mothers. Leicester: De Montfort University.
Baldwin, L., O’Malley, S., & Galway, K. (2015). Mothers addicted: Working with complexity. In Chap. 10: 239–262: Baldwin, L. (2015). Mothering justice: Working with mothers in social and criminal justice settings.
Bohannon, J. (2009). The theory? Diet causes violence. The lab? Prison. Science, 325(5948), 1614–1616.
Booker, A., and Dearnley, H. (2016). Faith and Identity in Prison. In Religion, Faith and Crime (pp. 347–373). Springer.
Brisman, A. (2008). Fair fare: Food as contested terrain in US prisons and jails. Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy, 15, 49.
Carlen, P., & Worrall, A. (2004). Analysing Women’s Imprisonment. London: Taylor & Francis.
Carrington, K. (2014). Feminism and Global Justice. New York: Routledge.
Corston, J. (2007). The Corston report: A report by baroness Jean Corston of a review of women with particular vulnerabilities in the criminal justice system: The need for a distinct, radically different, visibly-led, strategic, proportionate, holistic, woman-centred, integrated approach. Home Office.
Council of Europe. Committee of Ministers. (2006). European prison rules. Council of Europe. Recommendation Rec. 2 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on the European Prison Rules.
Crewe, B., Hulley, S., & Wright, S. (2017). The gendered pains of life imprisonment. British Journal of Criminology, 57(6), 20.
Department of Health. (2004). National Service Framework for Children, Young People and Maternity Services, Standard 11: Maternity Services. London: DH.
Earle, S., & Letherby, G. (2003). Gender, identity and reproduction. New York: Springer.
Galloway, S., Haynes, A., & Cuthbert, C. (2015). All babies count—An unfair sentence: Spotlight on the criminal justice system. London: NSPCC.
Gerry, F., & Harris, L. (2016). Women in prison: Is the justice system fit for purpose? Halsbury Law Exchange. Retrieved September 21, 17, from http://blogs.lexisnexis.co.uk/halsburyslawexchange/wp-content/uploads/sites/25/2016/11/SA-1016-077-Women-in-Prison-Paper-ONLINE-FINAL.pdf.
Godderis, R. (2006a). Dining in: The symbolic power of food in prison. The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, 45(3), 255–267.
Godderis, R. (2006b). Food for thought: An analysis of power and identity in prison food narratives. Berkeley Journal of Sociology, 50, 61–75.
Gullberg, S. (2013). State of the estate—Women in prison’s report on the women’s custodial estate 2011–12. London: Women in Prison.
Harvey, J. (2008). An Embedded Multimethod Approach to Prison Research. In King, R., and Wincup, E. (Eds.), Doing Research on Crime and Justice (Part V: Chapter 18: pp. 487–500). Oxford University Press.
Howson, A. (2013). The body in society: An introduction. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Kennedy, A., Marshall, D., Parkinson, D., Delap, N., & Abbott, L. (2016). Birth charter for women in prison in England and Wales. London: Birth Companions.
LeBel, T. P., Burnett, R., Maruna, S., & Bushway, S. (2008). The chicken and egg of subjective and social factors in desistance from crime. European Journal of Criminology, 5(2), 131–159.
Maruna, S. (2001). Making Good: How ex-Convicts Reform and Rebuild their Lives. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Maruna, S., Wilson, L., & Curran, K. (2006). Why god is often found behind bars: Prison conversions and the crisis of self-narrative. Research in Human Development, 3(2-3), 161–184.
Maruna, S., McNeill, F., Farrall, S., & Lightowler, C. (2012). Desistance Research and Probation Practice: Knowledge Exchange and Co-Producing Evidence-Based Practice Models. Irish Probation Journal, 9, October 2012.
Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk Through Audits and Confidential Enquiries Across the UK (MBRRACE-UK). (2017). National perinatal epidemiology unit. Oxford. Retrieved from https://www.npeu.ox.ac.uk/mbrrace-uk.
Ministry of Justice. (2020). Population and Capacity Briefing. London: Ministry of Justice.
National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). (2010). Pregnancy and complex social factors: A model for service provision for pregnant women with complex social factors. NICE. Retrieved September 13, 17, from http://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg110.
National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). (2014). Pregnancy and complex social factors overview. NICE. Retrieved September 13, 17, from http://pathways.nice.org.uk/pathways/pregnancy-and-complexsocialfactors.
National Offender Management Services. (2014). Mother and baby units prison service instruction (PSI) 49/2014 PI 63/2014. Retrieved August 10, 15, from https://www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/offenders/psipso/psi-2014/psi-49-2014-mother-and-baby-units.pdf.
Niebyl, J. R. (2010). Nausea and Vomiting in Pregnancy. New England Journal of Medicine, 363(16), 1544–1550.
North, J., Chase, L., & Alliance, M. (2006). Getting it Right: Services for Pregnant Women, New Mothers, and Babies in Prison: Lankelly Chase.
Paternoster, R., and Bachman, R. (2017). The missing element in theories of desistance. The Routledge International Handbook of Life-Course Criminology, 29.
Plimmer, G. (2016, May 9). Care UK becomes biggest prison health care provider. Financial Times.
Prison Reform Trust. (2017). Bromley briefings, prison: The facts. Summer 2017. London: Prison Reform Trust. Retrieved August 10, 17, from http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/Portals/0/Documents/Bromley%20Briefings/Summer%202017%20factfile.pdf.
Rogan, M. (2017). Human rights and correctional health policy: A view from Europe. International Journal of Prisoner Health, 13(1).
Rowe, A. (2015). ‘Tactics’, agency and power in women’s prisons. British Journal of Criminology, 56(2), 332–349.
Royal College of Midwives. (2016). Caring for childbearing prisoners: A position paper. London: Position Statement for Women in Custody.
Sharpe, G. (2015). Precarious Identities: ‘Young’ Motherhood, Desistance and Stigma. Criminology and Criminal Justice, 15(4), 407–422.
Shlafer, R. J., Stang, J., Dallaire, D., Forestell, C. A., & Hellerstedt, W. (2017). Best practices for nutrition care of pregnant women in prison. Journal of Correctional Health Care, 23(3), 297–304.
Sikand, M. (2017). Lost spaces: Is the current provision for women prisoners to gain a place in a prison mother and baby unit fair and accessible? The Griffins Society University of Cambridge Institute of Criminology.
Smith, C. (2002). Punishment and pleasure: Women, food and the imprisoned body. The Sociological Review, 50(2), 197–214.
Smoyer, A. B. (2015a). Feeding relationships: Foodways and social networks in a women’s prison. Affilia, 30(1), 26–39.
Smoyer, A. B. (2015b). Making fatty girl cakes food and resistance in a women’s prison. The Prison Journal, 96(2), 191–209.
Sykes, G. M. (1958/2007). The society of captives: A study of a maximum-security prison. Princeton University Press.
United Nations. (2013). The Bangkok rules. Retrieved from http://www.penalreform.org/priorities/women-in-the-criminal-justice-system/bangkok-rules-2/.
Walmsley, R. (2013). World prison population list. World Prison Brief. Institute for Criminal Policy Research, International Centre for Prison Studies, Birkbeck, University of London.
Walklate, S. (2004). Gender, Crime and Criminal Justice. 2nd edn. London: Willan Publishing.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Abbot, L. (2021). Pregnancy in Prison. In: Maycock, M., Meek, R., Woodall, J. (eds) Issues and Innovations in Prison Health Research. Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46401-1_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46401-1_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-46400-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-46401-1
eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)