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<a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Women/WGWomen/Pages/WomenDeprivedLiberty.aspx" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193); text-decoration: underline;">https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Women/WGWomen/Pages/WomenDeprivedLiberty.aspx</a></p>
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<span style="font-size:9.5pt; font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif; color:black; background:white">The UN Working Group on the Issue of Discrimination against Women in Law and in Practice will present a thematic Report on
</span><span style="font-size:9.5pt; font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif; color:#C00000; background:white">Women Deprived of Liberty
</span><span style="font-size:9.5pt; font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif; color:black; background:white">to the 41st session of the Human Rights Council in June 2019. This report will be produced in the context of the Working Group focus on key areas affecting
the human rights of women and girls and will aim at reasserting women’s right to equality and countering rollbacks in this area. </span></p>
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<span style="font-size:9.5pt; font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif; color:black; background:white">…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………</span></p>
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<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/nov/13/female-prisoners-in-england-left-to-give-birth-alone-in-their-cells-report-reveals" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193); text-decoration: underline;" title="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/nov/13/female-prisoners-in-england-left-to-give-birth-alone-in-their-cells-report-reveals
Ctrl+Click or tap to follow the link">https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/nov/13/female-prisoners-in-england-left-to-give-birth-alone-in-their-cells-report-reveals</a></p>
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<b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:16.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">UK Female Prisoners Left to Give Birth Without a Midwife: Report
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Research reveals lack of proper medical care for pregnant women and babies in some prisons
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<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/nov/13/female-prisoners-in-england-left-to-give-birth-alone-in-their-cells-report-reveals#img-1" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193); text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif; color:blue; text-decoration:none"><img border="0" width="621" height="372" id="Picture_x0020_1" alt="A women's prison in England" style="width: 6.4687in; height: 3.875in; user-select: none;" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D4B75C.6D2E6BA0"></span></a><span style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193); text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color:windowtext; text-decoration:none"></span></span></p>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">The study looked at three prisons in England but birth charities say they think it is a ‘systemic issue across the board’. Photograph: Andrew Aitchison/Corbis via Getty Images
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">By <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/profile/sarahboseley" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193); text-decoration: underline;">
<span style="color:blue">Sarah Boseley</span></a></span></p>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">13 November 2018 -
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/women" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193); text-decoration: underline;">
<span style="color:blue">Women</span></a> are giving birth in prison cells without access to proper medical care, according to a startling report shared with the Guardian.</span></p>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Concerns for the welfare of pregnant women and their babies are raised by a detailed report into experiences in three prisons that highlights cases of women giving births in cells
without a midwife present, including one where the baby was premature and born feet-first.</span></p>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Research into the conditions of pregnant prisoners in England was undertaken by Dr Laura Abbott, specialist midwife and senior lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire, and flags
up significant risks to the safety and wellbeing of the women and babies. The report does not name the prisons to protect the anonymity of those who spoke to the researchers, but all three are in England.</span></p>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Births in cells are thought to be rare, although nobody knows exactly how many occur or even how many prisoners are pregnant because neither the Ministry of Justice nor the NHS collects
the data. But the lack of direct access, even on the phone, to a midwife for a women who thinks she is in labour makes it a risk. Prison nursing staff are not often trained to know when a woman is in labour, nor to cope with emergency deliveries if they cannot
get the woman to hospital in time.</span></p>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">“This is an area that we have become increasingly concerned about,” said Naomi Delap, director of the charity Birth Companions, which has been supporting women in prison for over
21 years. Last year they wrote to the prison service expressing concern for the safety of women and babies, asking for urgent measures to be put in place. “We had started to hear a number of stories from different places about women giving birth in prison.”</span></p>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Abbott’s report includes the story of a woman she calls Layla, whom she interviewed in prison. “As a midwife, I felt really shocked at what I was hearing,” she told the Guardian.
“She got upset – she hadn’t shared her story before.</span></p>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">“It was a risky birth. When she was telling me her story, there were red flags for me as a midwife. She was in premature labour – there was another four weeks of the pregnancy to
go – and the baby was in the breech position.”</span></p>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">This was Layla’s second baby. She called prison staff, telling them she knew her body and was sure she was in labour, but was not believed.</span></p>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">“Layla’s distress as her labour progresses to the birth of her child in a prison cell at night reveals alarming and inappropriate behaviour on the part of the staff,” says Abbott
in her report.</span></p>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">She had been to see the nurse in the daytime because she had lost her mucous plug, which happened in her last pregnancy just before labour began. With her first baby she had a quick
labour, so felt she needed to go straight to hospital. “I was trying to explain this to health care, they were just like, ‘No, don’t worry about it,’ and I was like, ‘No, really, I know my own body”,” she told Abbott.</span></p>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">At 11pm she began to have contractions, she said. By midnight they were getting stronger and she called for the nurses, who told her she was not in labour. She described the exchange
as: “I’m telling you I am in labour,’ ‘No, you’re not. Here’s some paracetamol and a cup of tea’.”</span></p>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Ten minutes after the nurses had left, said Layla, her waters broke. The nurses, she said were in “absolute panic”, saying they needed to get her to hospital. “I was laid there on
my bed, in my cell with a male nurse and a female nurse, not midwifery trained at all, trying to put gas and air in my mouth and I’m like, ‘I don’t want anything, I need to feel awake and I need to concentrate,’ and then out popped (baby) at twenty past one.
Still no ambulance, still no paramedics and she came out foot first,” she told Abbott.</span></p>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">At the time, Layla had not been told whether she would be given a place in a mother and baby unit or whether her baby would be taken from her. She said she did not know what to do
about breastfeeding. They were transferred to hospital. “I had nothing for her, no clothes, no nappies, because I was still in the main jail, and I wasn’t allowed any baby stuff in. It was September – freezing – so I had to just wrap her up in clothes, completely
naked underneath my nightie. She had nothing.”</span></p>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Abbott had confirmation of Layla’s account from prison staff.
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Layla’s experience was not an isolated incident. “I interviewed 10 members of staff and eight had experiences of births in cells or knew of them,” said Abbott. None of the staff in
two of the prisons she visited had specialist training in emergency births. In the third, there had been training for staff only in the mother and baby unit.</span></p>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Amy, a former prisoner who is now at home with her 11-month-old daughter, told the Guardian of lying to prison staff that she could no longer feel her baby moving. She had heard stories
of women giving birth in prison and was desperate to ensure she reached hospital in time. The first time she made the claim, she was taken to hospital for checks that showed the baby was fine. On the second occasion, hospital staff said she could stay in and
be induced, to be on the safe side.</span></p>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">“You think, I will do anything to make sure my baby is safe,” she said. There were only two or three nurses on duty for a prison of about 1,000 women and they were not trained in
midwifery, she said. When she went to hospital the first time, it took 20 minutes for the ambulance to get out of the prison because of the searches that had to be done.</span></p>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">She was in the mother and baby unit, so had a room to herself and her door was unlocked. But waiting past her due date for labour to start was hard. “It is petrifying,” she said.
“You are in that room. You don’t have anybody trained to deal with a quick delivery if that happens. There’s no pain relief. You just hope for the best. Sometimes I had to ring the buzzer to be sure somebody was going to answer.”</span></p>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Delap says they have a number of concerns, one of which is that nobody knows how many pregnant women are in prison or how many give birth inside or in hospital. Their guess is that
there are 600 pregnant women in prison and 100 give birth each year.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">“How can you really take this problem seriously if you don’t know what the numbers are? We think this is a systemic issue across the board. We’re saying it is not about what happens
in individual prisons,” she said.</span></p>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Urgent action is needed, say Birth Companions. Pregnant women should have 24-hour telephone access to a midwife or labour ward. Prison staff, including nurses, should not make the
decision as to whether a woman is in labour. Pregnant women locked in at night who call for help should be prioritised. Staff should be trained in emergency deliveries and at least one person with such training should be on the premises at night. And all stillbirths
– after 24 weeks – should be reported as deaths in custody to the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman.</span></p>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">She says the government’s aspirations for the prison service are good. “On paper the strategy is saying all the right things. But we see a real gap between what is recognised as should
be provided and what is provided. Women are getting inadequate care which can at times be dangerous for them and their babies.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">“If you have got women in prison who are pregnant or who have babies in prison then we really do need to look after them.”</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">A Prison Service spokesperson said:<b>
</b>“Healthcare in prisons is provided by trained medics and nurses, but we have also made training on dealing with pregnant inmates available to all prison officers.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">“Each pregnant prisoner has an individual care plan, while new guidance will make clear they should have access to 24-hour midwifery advice. We know it is extremely rare for a woman
to give birth in prison – because every step is taken to get them to hospital – but those unique cases are invariably down to the unpredictability of labour.</span></p>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">“Our new Female Offenders Strategy made clear that we want fewer women serving short sentences in custody and
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jul/24/police-need-to-offer-female-offenders-support-not-prison" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193); text-decoration: underline;">
<span style="color:blue">more remaining in the community</span></a>, making use of women’s centres to address needs such as substance misuse and mental health problems.”</span></p>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span></p>
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<a href="http://researchprofiles.herts.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/im-in-labour-im-telling-you-i-am-in-labour--what-is-the-experience-of-being-a-pregnant-woman-in-prison-findings-of-an-ethnographic-study(af0e3496-831f-490d-b9f2-51e2f4d4f3f4).html" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193); text-decoration: underline;">http://researchprofiles.herts.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/im-in-labour-im-telling-you-i-am-in-labour--what-is-the-experience-of-being-a-pregnant-woman-in-prison-findings-of-an-ethnographic-study(af0e3496-831f-490d-b9f2-51e2f4d4f3f4).html</a></p>
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<b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt; font-family:"Arial",sans-serif; color:#666666"><a href="http://researchprofiles.herts.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/im-in-labour-im-telling-you-i-am-in-labour--what-is-the-experience-of-being-a-pregnant-woman-in-prison-findings-of-an-ethnographic-study(af0e3496-831f-490d-b9f2-51e2f4d4f3f4).html" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193); text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color:#1964A1; text-decoration:none">UK
- What Is the Experience of Being a Pregnant Woman in Prison? Ethnographic Study</span></a></span></b></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif; color:#666666"><a href="http://researchprofiles.herts.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/laura-abbott(00a63dc4-0672-49e1-83c1-3e23c8230811).html" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193); text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color:#1964A1; text-decoration:none">Laura
Abbott</span></a> – University of Hertfordshire - School of Health & Social Work – Department of Allied Health Professions, Midwifery & Social Work – Published 5 October 2018</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">
<b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:13.5pt; font-family:"Arial",sans-serif; color:#666666">Abstract</span></b></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Arial",sans-serif; color:#666666">The UK has the highest incarceration rate in Western Europe, with pregnant women making up around 6% of the female prison population. There are limited qualitative studies
published that document the experiences of pregnancy whilst serving a prison sentence. My doctoral study presents a qualitative, ethnographic interpretation of the pregnancy experience in English prisons. The study took place during 2015-2016 and involved
semi-structured interviews with 28 female prisoners in England who were pregnant, or had recently given birth whilst imprisoned, ten members of staff, and ten months of non-participant observation. This presentation focuses on how ‘institutional thoughtlessness’
of a patriarchal system can lead to dangers for perinatal women. From missed medication and a lack of basic provisions to inappropriate diagnosis of women in labour- my talk will bring this ground-breaking research to RCM members.
</span></p>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Arial",sans-serif; color:#666666"><br>
The main frustration that was articulated by all participants was not receiving basic rights and entitlements, e.g. nutrition, fresh air, medication and suitable bedding. The bureaucratic barriers facing the pregnant woman make her different from any other
prisoner. The inconsistencies in receiving what she was entitled to as a pregnant woman varied across the prisons and was often dependent on individual staff knowledge. Without exception, women described their embarrassment and humiliation at being seen in
public as a pregnant prisoner. Simply being pregnant necessitated regular public ‘outings’, to attend recurrent hospital appointments, a quite different experience from other prisoners. Having regular appointments and scans, often more frequently than in a
normal low-risk pregnancy due to multiple health risk factors, also meant that a woman would have no warning about when she would be taken out of the prison, and therefore no time to prepare herself mentally or physically. Women reported being categorized
by their crimes, losing their identity as a mother to existing children and as wife/partner if they were in a relationship prior to incarceration. Women would feel stripped of their individuality due to being grouped together as a homogenous collection of
prisoners. </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Arial",sans-serif; color:#666666"> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Arial",sans-serif; color:#666666">Seamless collaboration is required between the Prison Service, NHS Trusts and charities to facilitate the support of pregnant women: this is especially important with regards
to obstetric emergencies but also concerns care in early labour, the potential for precipitous birth and the timely debriefing of women should they endure a cell birth. Women should not be giving birth in prison cells and if, on a rare occasion, an unexpected
birth occurs, the minimum she should expect is to have an appropriately-trained professional to support her and her baby. This research has given voice to pregnant imprisoned women and highlighted gaps in existing policy guidelines. In this sense, the study
has the potential to springboard future inquiry and to be a vehicle for positive reform.
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