, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Prisons and
Probation, responding to a damning Prisons and Probation
Ombudsman report into the death of a pregnant prisoner’s baby at
Bronzefield prison, said:
"This heartbreaking report makes clear the prison system is
failing pregnant women and their children and putting lives at
risk.
“The Government must urgently fix the system to treat all
pregnancies in prison as high risk and deliver a linked-up and
dedicated model of care for pregnant women.
“We cannot have a system that risks the lives of the babies of
pregnant prisoners.”
Ends
Notes to editors:
- The pregnant prisoner, Ms A, gave birth with no medical
assistance.
- Information-sharing within the prison and health agencies was
poor and the approach to managing Ms A in Bronzefield was
uncoordinated.
- No one responsible for Ms A’s care had a full history of her
pregnancy.
- In the days leading up to Baby A’s birth there were several
missed opportunities to increase observations on Ms A that might
have led to her labour being discovered.
- Staff working on Ms A’s house block on 26/27 September did
not know that Ms A might give birth imminently
- The response to Ms A’s request for a nurse on 26 September
was completely inadequate.
- An ambulance was not called promptly in response to two
medical emergency codes on 27 September.
- Maternity services at the prison were outdated and
inadequate.
- This was not the first incident at the prison. There had been
two previous unexpected births at Bronzefield, one in October
2017 and one in March 2019. Both babies were delivered by prison
nurses in the prisoner’s cell. The report finds some similarities
across these cases with the birth of Baby A.
- Wider recommendations include:
- All pregnancies in prison should be treated as high risk by
virtue of the fact that the woman is locked behind a door for a
significant amount of time.
- Effective oversight of pregnant women in prison requires
that: there is a clear perinatal pathway; the midwifery service
is integrated with healthcare; healthcare staff have clinical
expertise with pregnant women; the midwifery service is tailored
to the specific needs of pregnant women in a custodial setting;
and care is able to take account of women who do not want to
engage with maternity and healthcare services
- A further baby death in a women’s prison, at HMP Styal in
June 2020, is still under investigation.
