Coroner will give ruling on death of baby in prison after teenage mother was left to give birth alone TODAY as campaigners demand end to ‘high-risk’ practice of sending pregnant women to jail
- Baby Aisha Cleary was found dead in prison cell in September 2019
- Her was mother forced to give birth alone and cut umbilical cord with her teeth
A coroner is today expected to give a ruling on the death of a baby in prison after a teenage mother was left to give birth alone in her prison cell.
Baby Aisha Cleary was found dead in a prison cell in September 2019 after her mother, a vulnerable teenager, was forced to give birth alone at HMP Bronzefield in Ashford, Surrey.
The 18-year-old was left alone for 12 hours as staff ignored her cries for help and left her to cut Aisha’s umbilical cord with her teeth.
As campaigners demand an end to the ‘high-risk’ practice of sending pregnant women the prison, the Surrey coroner will give his verdict as to whether failures in the care of baby Aisha, or her mother, contributed to her death.
This horrifying case has reignited campaigners urging for maternity and neonatal care at women’s prisons where, according to research, women are seven times more likely to have a stillbirth than those outside prison, The Times reports.
Baby Aisha Cleary was found dead in a prison cell in September 2019 after her mother, a vulnerable teenager, was forced to give birth alone at HMP Bronzefield (pictured) in Ashford, Surrey
As campaigners demand an end to the ‘high-risk’ practice of sending pregnant women the prison, the Surrey coroner will give his verdict as to whether failures in the care of baby Aisha, or her mother, contributed to her death (stock photo)
New figures also show that almost 200 pregnant women were in prison in England last year.
Many countries, including Brazil, Ukraine and Mexico, do not imprison pregnant women and instead hand out community sentences, house arrest or probation under supervision.
New data published by the government yesterday shows that there were 196 pregnant women in prison in the year to March. The month with the highest number was January, at 58.
In the same period, 44 babies were born to incarcerated women. Most of these births happened once the mother was taken to hospital but one took place either in prison or in transit to hospital.
In 2021-22, 50 babies were born to women in prison and three births happened either in prison or on the drive to the hospital.
Another baby born in prison also died in recent years when Louise Powell, 31, begged prison staff for an ambulance in 2020 before she gave birth Brooke in the toilet of her cell in HMP Styal in Cheshire. Brooke was stillborn.
Co-director of feminist charity Level Up, Janey starling, told The Times that prison ‘will never be a safe place to be pregnant’ and that the ‘only way to keep pregnant women safe is for courts to stop sending pregnant women there’.
Campaigners are urging the Sentencing Council to review guidelines to allow them to give a greater consideration to pregnancy and the risk prison causes for babies born in custody.
University of Hertfordshire Professor and fellow of the Royal College of Midwives Dr Laura Abbot told The Times that the courts must ‘urgently’ start to consider the ‘devastating impact and proven risks of a custodial sentence on a pregnant woman or new mother, and stop sending them to prison’.
